leave to fire; however, when it was done, I was pleased well enough to
see the effect it had upon these poor innocent well-meaning people. At
first it frightened them to the last degree, and I may truly say it
frightened them out of their senses, for they that were near it started
so violently, that they fell down and lay speechless for some time;
those that were farther off ran away, as if it had been some new kind of
lightning and thunder, and came out of the earth instead of out of the
clouds; but when they saw the two creatures fall down dead from above,
and could see nothing that flew upward to kill them, they were perfectly
astonished, and laid their two hands on their breasts and looked up to
heaven, as if they were saying their prayers, in the most solemn manner
imaginable.
However, this accident gave them terrible ideas of us, and I was afraid
at first they would run all away from us through fear. I therefore used
them after it with all the kindness and tenderness imaginable, gave them
every day some trifle or other, which, though of no value to me, they
were exceedingly fond of; and we asked nothing of them in return but
provisions, of which they had great plenty, and gave us enough every day
to satisfy us. As for drink, they had none of the milky liquor which we
had in the other part of the country, but they had a root which they
steeped in water, and made it taste hot, as if pepper had been in it,
which made it so strong, that though it would not make our men drunk, it
was worse, for it made them nearly mad.
I was so pleased with these people that I came over to them every other
day, and some of our men lay on shore, under a sail pitched for a tent;
and they were so safe, that at last they kept no watch, for the poor
people neither thought any harm, nor did any; and we never gave them the
least occasion to apprehend anything from us, at least not till our man
fired the gun, and that only let them know we were able to hurt them,
without giving them the least suspicion that we intended it; on the
contrary, one of our men played an odd prank with a child, and fully
satisfied them that we would do them no harm. This man having seen one
of their children, a little laughing speechless creature, of about two
years old, the mother having gone from it a little way, on some
particular occasion, the fellow took it and led it home to the tent, and
kept it there all night.
The next morning, he dressed it up with beads and jewels wondrous fine,
a necklace about its neck, and bracelets of beads about its wrists, and
several strings of beads wrapped up and tied in its hair, having fed it
and laid it to sleep, and made much of it.
In this figure he carried it up in his arms to the Indian's hut where he
had found it, and where there had been a lamentable outcry for the child
all the night, the mother crying and raising her neighbours, and in a
most strange concern.
But when some of the women, her neighbours, saw the child brought back,
there was a contrary extreme of joy; and the mother of it being fetched,
she fell a-jumping and dancing to see her child, but also making so many
odd gestures, as that our men could not well know for awhile whether she
was pleased or not: the reason it seems was, she did not know whether to
hope or fear, for she did not know whether the man would give back her
child or take it away again.
But when the man who had the child in his arms had been told by signs
that this was the mother, he beckoned to have her come to him, and she
came, but trembling for fear. Then he took the child, and kissing it two
or three times, gave it her into her arms. But it is impossible to
express by words the agony the poor woman was in; she took the child,
and holding it in her arms fixed her eyes upon it without motion, or, as
it were, without life, for a good while; then she took it and embraced
it in the most passionate manner imaginable; when this was over, she
fell a-crying so vehemently till she sobbed; and all this while spoke
not one word. When the crying had given sufficient vent to her passion,
then she fell a-dancing and making a strange odd noise, that cannot be
described, and at last she left the child, and came back to the place
where our men were, and to the man that brought her child, and, as soon
as she came up to him, she fell flat on the ground, as I have described
above the queen and her women did, and up again immediately; and thus
she did three times, which it seems was her acknowledgment to him for
bringing it back.
The next day, for her gratitude did not end here, she came down to our
tent, and brought with her two sheep, with a great back-burden of roots
of the kind which I said the natives steep in the water, and several
fruits of the country, as much as two men who came with her could carry,
and these she gave all to the man who had brought back her child. Our
men were so moved at the affectionate carriage of this poor woman to her
infant, that they told me it brought tears from their eyes.
The man who received the present took the woman and dressed her up
almost as fine as he had done the child, and she went home like a kind
of a queen among them.
We observed while we stayed here that this was a most incomparable soil;
that the earth was a fat loamy mould; that the herbage was strong; that
the grass in some places was very flourishing and good, being as high as
our mid-thigh; and that the air was neither very hot, nor, as we
believed, very cold. We made an experiment of the fruitfulness of the
soil, for we took some white peas, and digging the ground up with a
spade, we sowed some, and before we went away we saw them come out of
the ground again, which was in about nine days.
We made signs to the people that they should let them grow, and that if
they gathered them they were good to eat; we also sowed some English
wheat, and let them know, as well as we could, what the use of them both
was. But I make no doubt but they have been better acquainted with, both
by this time, by an occasion which followed.
Our men were so fond of this place, and so pleased with the temper of
the people, the fruitfulness of the soil, and agreeableness of the
climate, that about twenty of them offered me, if I would give them my
word to come again, or send to them to relieve and supply them with
necessaries, they would go on shore and begin a colony, and live all
their days there. Nay, after this, their number came up to
three-and-thirty; or they offered, that, if I would give them the
sloop, and leave them a quantity of goods, especially of such toys as
they knew would oblige the people to use them well, they would stay at
all hazards, not doubting, as they told me, but they should come to
England again at last, with the sloop full of gold.
I was not very willing to encourage either of these proposals, because,
as I told them, I might perhaps find a place as fit to settle a colony
in before we came home, which was not at such an excessive distance from
England, so that it was scarce possible ever to relieve them. This
satisfied them pretty well, and they were content to give over the
project; and yet, at last, which was more preposterous than all the
rest, five of our men and a boy ran away from us and went on shore, and
what sort of life they led, or how they managed, we could not tell, for
they were too far off us to inquire after them again. They took a small
yawl with them, and it seems had furnished themselves privately with
some necessary things, especially, tools, a grindstone, a barrel of
powder, some peas, some wheat, and some barley; so that it seems they
are resolved to plant there. I confess I pitied them, and when I had
searched for them, and could not find them, I caused a letter to be
written to them, and fixed it upon a post at the place where our ship
careened; and another letter on the south side, to tell them that in
such a certain place I had left other necessaries for them, which I did,
made up in a large case of boards or planks, and covered with boards
like a shed.
Here I left them hammocks for lodging, all sorts of tools for building
them a house, spades, shovels, pickaxes, an axe, and two saws, with
clothes, shoes, stockings, hats, shirts, and, in a word, every thing
that I could think of for their use; and a large box of toys, beads,
&c., to invite the natives to trade with them.
One of our men, whom they had made privy to their design, but made him
promise not to reveal it until they were gone, had told them that he
would persuade me, if he could, to leave them a farther supply; and bade
them come to the place after the ships were gone, and that they should
find directions left for them on a piece of a board, or a letter from
him set up upon a post. Thus they were well furnished with all things
for immediate living.
I make no doubt but they came to find these things; and, since they had
a mind to make trial of a wild retired life, they might shift very well;
nor would they want anything but English women to raise a new nation of
English people, in a part of the world that belongs neither to Europe,
Asia, Africa, or America. I also left them every man another gun, a
cutlass, and a horn for powder; and I left two barrels of fine powder,
and two pigs of lead for shot, in another chest by itself.
I doubt not but the natives will bestow wives upon them, but what sort
of a posterity they will make, I cannot foresee, for I do not find by
inquiry that the fellows had any great store of knowledge or religion in
them, being all Madagascar men, as we called them, that is to say,
pirates and rogues; so that, for aught I know, there may be a generation
of English heathens in an age or two more; though I left them five
Bibles, and six or seven Prayer-books, and good books of several sorts,
that they might not want instruction, if they thought fit to make use of
it for themselves or their progeny.
It is true, that this is a country that is remote from us of any in the
yet discovered world, and consequently it would be suggested as
unprofitable to our commerce; but I have something to allege in its
defence, which will prove it to be infinitely more advantageous to
England than any of our East India trade can be, or that can be
pretended for it. The reason is plain in a few words; our East India
trade is all carried on, or most part of it, by an exportation of
bullion in specie, and a return of foreign manufactures or produce; and
most of these manufactures also, either trifling and unnecessary in
themselves, or such as are injurious to our own manufactures. The solid
goods brought from India, which may be said to be necessary to us, and
worth sending our money for, are but few; for example,
1. The returns which I reckon trifling and unnecessary, are such as
China ware, coffee, tea, Japan work, pictures, fans, screens, &c.
2. The returns that are injurious to our manufactures, or growth of our
own country, are printed calicoes, chintz, wrought silks, stuffs, of
herbs and barks, block-tin, sugar, cotton, arrack, copper, and indigo.
3. The necessary or useful things are, pepper, saltpetre, dying-woods
and dying-earths, drugs, lacs, such as shell-lac, stick-lac, &c.,
diamonds, some pearl, and raw-silk.
For all these we carry nothing or very little but money, the
innumerable nations of the Indies, China, &c., despising our
manufactures, and filling us with their own.
On the contrary, the people in the southern unknown countries, being
first of all very numerous, and living in a temperate climate, which
requires clothing, and having no manufactures, or materials for
manufactures, of their own, would consequently take off a very great
quantity of English woollen manufactures, especially when civilized by
our dwelling among them, and taught the manner of clothing themselves
for their ease and convenience; and, in return for these manufactures,
it is evident we should have gold in specie, and perhaps spices, the
best merchandise and return in the world.
I need say no more to excite adventurous heads to search out a country
by which such an improvement might be made, and which would be such an
increase of, or addition to, the wealth and commerce of our country.
Nor can it be objected here, that this nook of the country may not
easily be found by any one but by us, who have been there before, and
perhaps not by us again exactly; for, not to enter into our journal of
observations for their direction, I lay it down as a foundation, that
whoever sailing over the South Seas keeps a stated distance from the
tropic, to the latitude of 56 to 60 deg., and steers eastward towards the
Straits of Magellan, shall never fail to discover new worlds, new
nations, and new inexhaustible funds of wealth and commerce, such as
never were yet known to the merchants of Europe.
This is the true ocean called the South Sea; that part which we
corruptly call so can be so in no geographical account, or by any rule,
but by the mere imposition of custom, it being only originally called
so, because they that sailed to it were obliged to go round the
southernmost part of America to come into it; whereas it ought indeed to
be called the West Sea, as it lies on the west side of America, and
washes the western shore of that great continent for near eight thousand
miles in length; to wit, from 56 deg. south of the line to 70 deg. north, and
how much farther we know not; on this account I think it ought to be
called the American Ocean, rather than with such impropriety the South
Sea.
But this part of the world where we were may rightly be called the South
Sea, by way of distinction, as it extends from India round the globe,
to India again, and lies all south of the line even, for aught we know,
to the very South Pole, and which, except some interposition of land,
whether islands or continent, really surrounds the South Pole.
We were now in the very centre or middle of this South Sea, being, as I
have said, in the latitude of 34 deg. 20'; but having had such good success
in our inquiry or search after new continents, I resolved to steer to
the south and south-east, as far as till we should be interrupted by
land or ice, determining to search this unknown part of the globe as far
as nature would permit, that I might be able to give some account to my
employers, and some light to other people that might come that way,
whether by accident or by design.
We had spent six-and-twenty days in this place, as well in repairing our
brigantine and careening, as trimming our ship; we had not been so long,
but, that we did not resolve to careen our ships till we had spent ten
days about the brigantine, and then we found more work to do to the
sheathing of the Madagascar ship than we expected.
We stored ourselves here with fresh provisions and water, but got
nothing that we could properly call a store, except the flesh of about
thirty deer, which we dried in the sun, and which proved indifferently
good afterwards, but not extraordinary.
We sailed again the six-and-twentieth day after we came in, having a
fair wind at north and north-north-west, and a fresh gale which held us
five days without intermission; in which time, running away south and
south-south-east, we reached the former latitude, where we had been, and
meeting with nothing remarkable, we steered a little farther to the
eastward; but keeping a southerly course still, till we came into the
latitude of 41 deg., and then going due east, with the wind at north and by
west, we reckoned our meridian distance from the Ladrones, to be 50 deg.
30'.
In all this run we saw no land, so we hauled two points more southerly,
and went on for six or seven days more; when one of our men on the round
top, cried Land! It was a clear fine morning, and the land he espied
being very high, it was found to be sixteen leagues distance; and the
wind slackening, we could not get in that night, so we lay by till
morning, when being fair with the land, we hoisted our boat to go and
sound the shore, as usual. The men rowed in close with the shore and
found a little cove, where there was good riding, but very deep water,
being no less than sixty fathoms within cable's length of the shore.
We went in, however, and after we were moored sent our boat on shore to
look for water, and what else the country afforded. Our men found water,
and a good sort of country, but saw no inhabitants; and, upon coasting a
little both ways on the shore, they found it to be an island, and
without people; but said that about three leagues off to the southward,
there seemed to be a Terra Firma, or continent of land, where it was
more likely we should make some discovery.
The next day we filled water again, and shot some ducks, and the day
after weighed and stood over for the main, as we thought it to be. Here,
using the same caution as we always had done, viz., of sounding the
coast, we found a bold shore and very good anchor hold, in
six-and-twenty to thirty fathoms.
When we came on shore, we found people, but of a quite different
condition from those we had met with before, being wild, furious, and
untractable; surprised at the sight of us, but not intimidated;
preparing for battle, not for trade; and no sooner were we on shore but
they saluted us with their bows and arrows. We made signals of truce to
them, but they did not understand us, and we knew not what to offer them
more but the muzzles of our muskets; for we were resolved to see what
sort of folks they were, either by fair means or foul.
The first time, therefore, that they shot at our men with their bows and
arrows, we returned the salute with our musket-ball, and kill two of
their foremost archers. We could easily perceive that the noise of our
pieces terrified them, and the two men being killed, they knew not how,
or with what, perfectly astonished them; so that they ran, as it were,
clean out of the country, that is to say, clean out of our reach, for we
could never set our eyes upon them after it. We coasted this place also,
according to our usual custom; and, to our great surprise, found it was
an island too, though a large one; and that the mainland lay still more
to the southward, about six leagues distance, so we resolved to look out
farther, and accordingly set sail the next day, and anchored under the
shore of this last land, which we were persuaded was really the main.
We went on shore here peaceably, for we neither saw any people, or the
appearance of any, but a charming pleasant valley, of about ten or
eleven miles long, and five or six miles broad; and then it was
surrounded with mountains, which reached the full length, running
parallel with the valley, and closing it in to the sea at both ends; so
that it was a natural park, having the sea on the north side, and the
mountains in a semicircle round all the rest of it. These hills were so
high, and the ways so untrod and so steep, that our men, who were
curious enough to have climbed up to the top of them, could find no way
that was practicable to get up, and after two or three attempts gave it
over.
In this vale we found abundance of deer, and abundance of the same kind
of sheep which I mentioned lately. We killed as many of both as we had
occasion for; and, finding nothing here worth our staying any longer
for, except that we saw something like wild rice growing here, we
weighed after three days, and stood away still to the south.
We had not sailed above two days with little wind and an easy sail, when
we perceived this also was an island, though it must be a large one;
for, by our account, we sailed near a hundred and fifty miles along the
shore of it, and we found the south part a flat pleasant country enough;
and our men said they saw people upon it on the south side, but we went
not on shore there any more.
Steering due south from hence in quest of the mainland, we went on
eleven days more, and saw nothing significant, and, upon a fair
observation, I found we were in the latitude of 47 deg. 8' south; then I
altered my course a little to the eastward, finding no land, and the
weather very cold, and going on with a fresh gale at south-south-west
for four days, we made land again; but it was now to the
east-north-east, so that we were gotten, as we may say, beyond it.
We fell in with this land in the evening, so that it was not perceived
till we were within half a league of it, which very much alarmed us, the
land being low; and having found our error, we brought to and stood off
and on till morning, when we saw the shore lie, as it were, under our
larboard bow, within a mile and a quarter distance, the land low, but
the sea deep and soft ground. We came to anchor immediately, and sent
our shallops to sound the shore, and the men found very good riding in a
little bay, under the shelter of two points of land, one of which made a
kind of hook, under which we lay secure from all winds that could blow,
in seventeen fathoms good ground. Here we had a good observation, and
found ourselves in the latitude of 50 deg. 21'. Our next work was to find
water, and our boats going on shore, found plenty of good water and some
cattle, but told us they could give no account what the cattle were, or
what they were like. In searching the coast, we soon found this was an
island also, about eleven leagues in length, from north-west to
south-east, what breadth we could not tell. Our men also saw some signs
of inhabitants. The next day six men appeared at a distance, but would
take notice of no signals, and fled as soon as our men advanced. Our
people went up to the place were they lay, and found they had made a
fire of some dry wood; that they had laid there, as they suppose, all
night, though without covering. They found two pieces of old ragged
skins of deer, which looked as if worn out by some that had used them
for clothing, and one piece of a skin of some other creature, which had
been rolled up into a cap for the head; also a couple of arrows of about
four feet long, very thick, and made of a hard and heavy wood; so they
must have very large and strong bows to shoot such arrows, and
consequently must be men of an uncommon strength.
Our men wandered about the country three or four days, with less caution
than the nature of their situation required; for they were not among a
people of an innocent, inoffensive temper here, as before, but among a
wild, untractable nation, that perhaps had never seen creatures in their
own likeness before, and had no thought of themselves but of being
killed and destroyed, and consequently had no thought of those they had
seen but as of enemies, whom they must either destroy, if they were
able, or escape from them if they were not. However, we got no harm,
neither would the natives ever appear to accept any kindnesses from us.
We had no business here, after we found what sort of people they were
who inhabited this place; so, as soon as we had taken in fresh water,
and caught some fish, of which we found good store in the bay or harbour
where we rode, we prepared to be gone. Here we found the first oysters
that we saw anywhere in the South Seas; and, as our men found them but
the day before we were to sail, they made great entreaty to me to let
them stay one day to get a quantity on board, they being very
refreshing, as well as nourishing, to our men.
But I was more easily prevailed with to stay, when Captain Merlotte
brought me, out of one oyster that he happened to open, a true oriental
pearl, so large and so fine, that I sold it, since my return, for
three-and-fifty pounds.
After taking this oyster, I ordered all our boats out a dredging, and in
two days' time so great a quantity there was, that our men had taken
above fifty bushels, most of them very large. But we were surprised and
disappointed, when, at the opening all those oysters, we found not one
pearl, small or great, of any kind whatever, so we concluded that the
other was a lucky hit only, and that perhaps there might not be any more
of that kind in these seas.