A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before Part 8

By that time our men had chaffered thus four or five times they first heard, and in a little while after saw, their two great boats, with their fellows, coming down the river, at about two miles' distance, with their drums and trumpets, and making noise enough.

They had been, it seems, about three leagues higher up, where they had been on sh.o.r.e among the Indians, and had set at liberty the two maidens, for such they understood they were; who, letting their friends see how fine they were dressed, and how well they were used, the Indians were so exceedingly obliged, and showed themselves so grateful, that they thought nothing too much for them, but brought out all the sorts of provisions which their country produced, which, it seem, amounted to nothing but fruits, such as plantains, cocoa-nuts, oranges and lemons, and such things, and roots, which we could give no name to; but that which was most for our use, was a very good sort of maize, or Indian corn, which made us excellent bread.

They had, it seems, some hogs and some goats; but our men got only six of the latter, which were at hand, and were very good. But that which was most remarkable was, that whereas in all the islands within the tropics the people are thievish, treacherous, fierce, and mischievous, and are armed with lances, or darts, or bows and arrows; these appeared to be a peaceable, quiet, inoffensive people; nor did our men see any weapon among them except a long staff, which most of the men carried in their hands, being made of a cane, about eight foot long, and an inch and a half in diameter, much like a quarter-staff, with which they would leap over small brooks of water with admirable dexterity.

The people were black, or rather of a tawny dark brown; their hair long, but curling in very handsome ringlets: they went generally quite naked, both men and women; except that in two places, our men said, they found some of the women covered from the middle downward. They seemed to have been strangers to the sea; nor did we find so much as any one boat among them: nor did any of the inhabitants dwell near the sea; but cultivated their lands very well, in their way; having abundance of greens and fruits growing about their houses; and upon which we found they chiefly lived. The climate seemed to be very hot, and yet the country very fruitful.

These people, by all we could perceive, had never had any converse with the rest of the world by sea; what they might have by land we know not; but, as they lie quite out of the way of all commerce, so it might be probable they never had seen a s.h.i.+p or boat, whether any European s.h.i.+p, or so much as a periagua of the islands. We have mentioned their nearest distance to the Ladrones, being at least four hundred leagues; and from the Spice Islands, and the country of New Guinea, much more; but as to the European s.h.i.+pping, I never heard of any that ever went that way, nor do I believe any ever did.

I take the more notice of these people's not having conversed, as I say, with the world, because of the innocence of their behaviour, their peaceable disposition, and their way of living upon the fruits and produce of the earth; also their cultivation, and the manner of their habitations; no signs of rapine or violence appearing among them. Our stay here was so little, that we could make no inquiry into their religion, manner of government, and other customs; nor have I room to crowd many of these things into this account. They went, indeed, as I have said, naked, some of them stark naked, both men and women, but I thought they differed in their countenances from all the wild people I ever saw; that they had something singularly honest and sincere in their faces, nor did we find anything of falsehood or treachery among them.

The grat.i.tude they expressed for our kindly using the two young women I have mentioned, was a token of generous principles; and our men told us, that they would have given them whatever they could have asked, that was in their power to bestow.

In a word, it was on their account they sent that little army of people to us loaden with provisions, which our men met before the two shallops came down. But all the provisions they had consisted chiefly in fruits of the earth, cocoa-nuts, plantains, oranges, lemons, &c., and maize, or Indian corn. We were not a sufficient time with them to inquire after what traffick they had, or whether anything fit for us. They had several fragrant plants, and some spices, particularly cinnamon, which we found, but what else the country produced we knew not.

We came away from hence after seven days' stay, having observed little of the country, more than that it seemed to be very pleasant, but very hot; the woods were all flouris.h.i.+ng and green and the soil rich, but containing little that could be the subject of trade; but an excellent place to be a baitland, or port of refreshment, in any voyage that might afterwards be undertaken that way.

We set sail, I say, from hence in seven days, and, finding the coast lie fairly on our starboard side, kept the land on board all the way, distance about three leagues; and it held us thus, about a hundred and twenty leagues due east, when on a sudden we lost sight of the land; whether it broke off, or whether it only drew off farther south, we could not tell.

We went on two or three days more, our course south-east, when we made land again; but found it only to be two small islands, lying south and by east, distance nine leagues. We stood on to them, and two of our boats went on sh.o.r.e, but found nothing for our purpose; no inhabitants, nor any living creatures, except sea fowls, and some large snakes; neither was there any fresh water. So we called that land Cape Dismal.

The same evening we stood away full south, to see if we could find out the continuance of the former land; but as we found no land, so a great sea coming from the south we concluded we should find no land that way.

And, varying our course easterly, we ran with a fair fresh gale at north-west and by west, for seven days more; in all which time, we saw nothing but the open sea every way; and making an observation found we had pa.s.sed the southern tropic; and that we were in the lat.i.tude of 26 13', after which we continued our course still southerly for several days more, until we found, by another observation, that we were in 32 20'.

This evening we made land over our starboard bow, distance six leagues, and stood away south and by east: but the wind slackening we lay by in the night; and in the morning found the land bearing east and by south, distance one league and a half; a good sh.o.r.e, and on sounding, about five-and-thirty fathom, stony ground. We now hoisted our boat out, and sent it on sh.o.r.e for discoveries, to sound the depth of the water, and see for a good harbour to put in at.

Our people went quite in with the sh.o.r.e, where they found several men and women crowded together to look at us. When our men came close to the land they hung out a white flag, but the wild people understood nothing of the meaning of it, but stood looking and amazed, and we have great reason to believe that they never had seen any s.h.i.+p or bark of any nation before. We found on our landing, no boats or sails, or anything they had to make use of on the water; but some days after we saw several small canoes, with three or four men in each.

Our men not being able to speak a word for them to understand, or to know what was said to them, the first thing they did, was to make signs to them for something to eat; upon which three of them seemed to go away, and coming again in a few minutes, brought with them several bundles or bunches of roots, some plantains, and some green lemons, or limes, and laid down all upon the coast. Our men took courage then to go on sh.o.r.e, and, taking up what they brought, set up a stick, and upon the end of it hung five bunches or strings of blue and white beads, and went on board again.

Never was such joy among a wild people discovered, as these natives showed, when they took the beads off the stick; they danced and capered, and made a thousand antic gestures, and, inviting our men on sh.o.r.e, laid their hands upon their b.r.e.a.s.t.s across, and then looked up, intimating a solemn oath not to hurt us.

Our men made signs, by which they made them understand, that they would come again next morning, and also that they should bring us more eatables; accordingly, we sent three boats the next morning, and our men carried knives, scissors, beads, looking-gla.s.ses, combs, and any toys they had, not forgetting gla.s.s beads and gla.s.s ear-rings in abundance.

The Indians were very ready to meet us, and brought us fruits and herbs as before; but three of them, who stood at a distance, held each of them a creature exactly like a goat, but without horns or beard; and these were brought to traffick with us.

We brought out our goods, and offered every one something; but the variety was surprising to them who had never seen such things before.

But that which was most valuable of all our things, was a hatchet, which one of their princ.i.p.al men took up and looked at it, felt the edge, and laid it down; then took it up again, and wanted to know the use of it: upon which one of our men took it, and stepping to a tree that stood near, cut off a small bough of it at one blow. The man was surprised, and ran to the tree with it, to see if he could do the same, and finding he could, he laid it down, ran with all his might into the country, and by-and-by returning, came with two men more with him, to show them this wonderful thing, a hatchet.

But if they were surprised with the novelty of a hatchet, our men were as much surprised to see hanging round the ears of both the men that he brought with him, large flat pieces of pure gold. The thread which they hung by was made of the hair of the goats, twisted very prettily together and very strong.

Our men offering to handle them, to see if they were gold, one of the men took off his two gold bobs, and offered them to our men for the hatchet. Our men seemed to make much difficulty of it, as if the hatchet was of much greater value than those trifles; upon which he, being as we found, superior, made the other, who came with him, pull off his two ear-jewels also; and so our unreasonable people took them all four, being of pure gold, and weighing together some grains above two ounces, in exchange for an old rusty hatchet. However unreasonable the price was, the purchaser did not think it so; and so over-fond was he of the hatchet, that as soon as he had it for his own, he ran to the tree, and in a few minutes had so laid about him with the hatchet, that there was not a twig left on it that was within his reach.

This exchange was a particular hint to me; and I presently directly my chief mate, and Captain Merlotte, to go on sh.o.r.e the next day, and acquaint themselves as much as they could with the natives, and, if possible, to find out where they had this gold, and if any quant.i.ty was to be found.

Captain Merlotte and my chief mate bestowed their time so well, and obliged the natives so much, by the toys and trifles they gave them, that they presently told them that the gold, which they called Aarah, was picked up in the rivers that came down from a mountain which they pointed to, a great way off. Our men prevailed with three of them, to go with them to one of these rivers, and gave them beads and such things to encourage them, but no hatchet; that was kept up at a high rate, and as a rarity fit only for a king, or some great man who wore Aarah on his ears.

In a word, they came to the river where they said they found this Aarah; and the first thing our men observed there, was an Indian sitting on the ground, and beating something upon a great stone, with another stone in his hand for his hammer: they went to see what he was doing, and found he had got a lump of gold from the sand, as big as a swan-shot, of no regular shape, but full of corners, neither round nor square; and the man was beating it flat as well as he could.

One of our men, who had a hatchet in his hand, made signs to him to let him flatten it for him; and so turning the back part of the hatchet, which served the purpose of a hammer, he beat the piece of gold flat in an instant; and then turning it upon the edge, beat it that way until he brought it to be round also.

This was so surprising to the man who had been beating, that he stood looking on with all the tokens of joy and amazement; and, desiring to see the hatchet, looked this way and that way, upon those of his countrymen who came with us, as if asking them if ever they saw the like.

When our man had done, he made signs to know if he had any more Aarah; the man said nothing, but went down to the brink of the river, and, putting his hand into a hole, he brought out three little lumps of gold, and a great many smaller, some of them about as big as a large pin's head; all which he had laid up there, in the hollow of a stone. Our man thought it was too much, to take all that for the hatchet; and therefore pulled out some beads, and pieces of gla.s.s, and such toys; and, in short, bought all this cargo of gold, which in the whole weighed near five ounces, for about the value of two s.h.i.+llings.

Though these bargains were very agreeable to us, yet the discovery of such a place, and of such a fund of treasure, in a part of the world, which it is very probable, was never before seen by any European eyes, nor so much as inquired after, was the greatest satisfaction imaginable to me; knowing the adventurous temper of the gentleman who was our princ.i.p.al employer. Upon this account, while my men busied themselves in their daily search after gold, and in finding out the rivers from whence it came, or rather where it was found, I employed myself to be fully informed where this place was; whether it was an island or a continent; and having found a tolerable good road for our s.h.i.+ps to ride in, I caused my two shallops, well manned, to run along the coast, both east and west, to find which way it lay, and whether they could find any end of it; as also to see what rivers, what people, and what provisions they could meet with.

By my observation, I found that we were in the lat.i.tude of 27 13' south meridian; distance from the Ladrones about 16 east. While my shallops were gone, I went on sh.o.r.e, and some of my men set up tents, as well for the convenience of their traffick, as for their resting on sh.o.r.e all night; keeping, however, a good guard, and having two of our s.h.i.+p's dogs with them, who never failed giving them notice, whenever any of the natives came near them; for what ailed the dogs I know not, but neither of them could bear the sight of the Indians, and we had much to do to keep them from flying at them.

While we rode here, we had the most violent storm of wind with rain, and with great claps of thunder, that we had yet sustained since we came out of England. It was our comfort that the wind came off sh.o.r.e, for it blew at south, and s.h.i.+fting between the south, south-east, and south-west, with such excessive gusts, and so furious, and withal, not only by squalls and sudden flaws, but a settled terrible tempest, that had it been from off sea, as it was off sh.o.r.e, we must have perished, there had been no remedy, and even as it was, we rode in great danger. My boatswain called out twice to me to cut my masts by the board, protesting we should either bring our anchors home, or founder as we rode; and indeed the sea broke over us many times in a terrible manner.

As I said before, we had an indifferent good road, and so we had, but not a very good one, for the land was low; and on the east we lay a little open. However, our ground-tackle was good, and our s.h.i.+p very tight, and I told the boatswain I would rather slip the cable and go off to sea than cut the masts. However, in about four hours' time more we found the wind abate, though it blew very hard for three days after.

I was in great pain for my two shallops in this tempest, but they had both the good luck to lie close under the sh.o.r.e; and one indeed had hauled quite upon the land, where the men lay on sh.o.r.e under their sail, so that they got no damage; and about three days after, one of them returned, and brought me word they had been to the west, where they had made very little discovery, as to the situation of the country, or whether it was an island or a continent, but they had conversed with the natives very often, and found several who had pieces of gold hanging, some in their hair, some about their necks; and they made a s.h.i.+ft to bring as many with them as weighed, all put together, seventeen or eighteen ounces, for which they had bartered toys and trifles, as we did; but they found no rivers, where they could discover any gold in the sands, as We had done, so that they believed it all came from the side where we were.

But our other shallop had much better luck; she went away to the east, and by the time she had gone about sixteen leagues she found the sh.o.r.e break off a little, and soon after a little more, until at length they came as it were to the land's end; when, the sh.o.r.e running due south, they followed, according to their account, near thirteen leagues more.

In this interval they went several times on sh.o.r.e, entered three rivers, indifferently large, and one of them very large at the mouth, but grew narrow again in three or four leagues; but a deep channel, with two-and-twenty to eight-and-twenty fathom water in it all the way, as far as they went.

Here they went on sh.o.r.e and trafficked with the natives, whom they found rude and unpolished, but a very mild inoffensive people; nor did they find them anything thievish, much less treacherous, as in some countries is the case. They had the good luck to find out the place where, as they supposed, the king of the country resided; which was a kind of a city, encompa.s.sed all round, the river making a kind of double horse-shoe. The manner of their living is too long to describe; neither could our men give any account of their government, or of the customs of the place; but what they sought for was gold and provisions, and of those they got pretty considerable quant.i.ties.

They found the Indians terribly surprised at the first sight of them; but after some time they found means to let them know they desired a truce, and to make them understand what they meant by it.

At length a truce being established, the king came, and with him near three hundred men; and soon after the queen, with half as many women.

They were not stark naked, neither men nor women, but wearing a loose piece of cloth about their middles; what it was made of we could not imagine, for it was neither linen or woollen, cotton or silk; nor was it woven, but twisted and braided by hand, as our women make bone lace with bobbins. It seems it was the stalk of an herb, which this was made with; and was so strong that I doubt not it would have made cables for our s.h.i.+ps, if we had wanted to make such an experiment.

When the king first came to our men they were a little shy of his company, he had so many with him, and they began to retire; which the king perceiving, he caused all his men to stop, and keep at a distance; and advanced himself with about ten or twelve of his men, and no more.

When he was come quite up, our men, to show their breeding, pulled off their hats, but that he did not understand, for his men had no hats on.

But the officer making a bow to him, he understood that presently, and bowed again; at which all his men fell down flat upon their faces, as flat to the ground as if they had been shot to death with a volley of our shot; and they did not fall so quick but they were up again as nimbly, and then down flat on the ground again; and this they did three times, their king bowing himself to our men at the same time.

This ceremony being over, our men made signs to them that they wanted victuals to eat, and something to drink: and pulled out several things, to let the people see they would give something for what they might bring them.

The king understood them presently, and turning to some of his men he talked awhile to them; and our men observed, that while he spoke they seemed to be terrified, as if he had been threatening them with death.

However, as soon as he had done, three of them went away, and our men supposed they went to fetch something that the king would give them; upon which, that they might be beforehand with them, our men presented his majesty with two pair of bracelets of fine gla.s.s beads of several colours, and put them upon his arms, which he took most kindly; and then they gave him a knife, with a good plain ivory handle, and some other odd things. Upon receiving these _n.o.ble_ presents, he sends away another of his men, and a little after two more.

Our men observed that two of the men went a great way off toward the hill, but the other man that he sent away first went to his queen, who, with her retinue of tawny ladies, stood but a little way off, and soon after her majesty came with four women only attending her.

The officer who commanded our men, finding he should have another kind of compliment to pay the ladies, retired a little; and, being an ingenious handy sort of a man, in less than half-an-hour, he and another of his men made a nice garland, or rather a coronet, of sundry strings of beads, and with gla.s.s bobs and pendants, all hanging about it, most wonderful gay; and when the queen was come, he went up to the king, and showing it to him, made signs that he would give it to the queen.

The king took it, and was so pleased with the present, that truly he desired our officer to put it upon his own head, which he did; but, when he had got it so placed, he let our men see he was king over his wife, as well as over the rest of the country, and that he would wear it himself.

Our men then pulled out a little pocket looking-gla.s.s, and, holding it up, let his majesty see his own face, which we might reasonably suppose he had never seen before, especially with a crown on his head too.

Before he saw his own face in the gla.s.s he was grave and majestic, and carried it something like a king; but he was so delighted with the novelty that he was quite beside himself, and jumped and capered and danced about like a madman.

All this while our men saw nothing coming, but that all was given on their side; whereupon they made signs again, that they wanted provisions.

The king then made signs, pointing to a hill a good way off, as if it would come from thence very quickly; and then looked to see if his people were coming, as if he was impatient till they came, as well as our men.

During this time, one of our men observed that the queen had several pieces of gold, as they thought them to be, hanging about her, particularly in her hair, and large flat plates of gold upon the hinder part of her head, something in the place of a roll, such as our women wear; that her hair was wound about it in rolls, braided together very curiously; and having informed our officer, he made signs to the king for leave to give the queen something, which he consented to. So he went to her majesty, making a bow as before; but this complaisance surprised her, for, upon his bowing, on a sudden falls the queen and all her four ladies flat on the ground, but were up again in a moment; and our people wondered how they could throw themselves so flat on their faces, and not hurt themselves; nor was it less to be wondered at, how they could so suddenly jump up again, for they did not rise up gradually as we must do, with the help of our hands and knees, if we were extended so flat on our faces, but they, with a spring, whether with their hands or their whole bodies, we knew not, sprang up at once, and were upon their feet immediately.