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

Doubtless those people who have any notion of a God must represent him to themselves as something superior, and something that sees, and hears, and knows what they say or do. Whether these people meant the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or other visible object, or whatever else, I do not pretend to determine, but it is certain they understood it to be something to swear by; something that could bear witness of their engagement, and that being called to witness it would resent their breach of promise if they made it. As to those whose gods are monsters, and hideous shapes, frightful images, and terrible figures, the motive of their adoration being that of mere terror, they have certainly gross ideas; but these people seem to act upon a more solid foundation, paying their reverence in a manner much more rational, and to something which it was much more reasonable to worship, as appeared in the solemnity of their countenances, and their behaviour in making a solemn promise.

We found those people clothed, generally speaking, over their whole bodies, their heads, arms, legs and feet excepted, but not so agreeably as those we mentioned above; and we found that the clothing of these were generally made of the skins of beasts, but very artfully put together, so that though they had neither needle nor thread, yet they had the same plant as I mentioned before, the stalk of which would so strongly tie like a thread, that they peeled it off thicker or finer as they had occasion, and made use of it abundance of ways to tie and twist, and make their clothes with it, as well for their occasion as if it had been woven in a loom.

We found several of these people had little bits of gold about them; but when we made signs to them to know where they got it, and where it might be had, they made signs to us, pointing to the country on the north side of the river; so that we had, it seems, fallen upon the right gold coast in our first coming. They pointed indeed likewise to some very high mountains, which we saw at a great distance south-west, so that it seems as if there was gold found that way also; but it appeared the people here had not much of it for their share.

The men here had bows and arrows, and they used them so dexterously, that a wild goose flying over our heads, one of the Indians shot it quite through with an arrow. One of our men was so provoked to see them, as it were, to outdo him, that, some time after, seeing a couple of ducks flying fair for a mark, he presented his piece, and shot them both flying.

I was very angry when I heard the gun; had I been there he had never got 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°, 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° south of the line to 70° 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° 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°, and then going due east, with the wind at north and by west, we reckoned our meridian distance from the Ladrones, to be 50° 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° 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° 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.

While we were musing on the oddness of this accident, the boatswain of the Madagascar ship, whose boat's crew had brought in the great oyster in which the pearl was found, and who had been examining the matter, came and told me that it was true that their boat had brought in the oyster, and that it was before they went out a dredging in the offing, but that their boat took these oysters on the west side of the island, where they had been shoring, as they called it, that is to say, coasting along the shore, to see if they could find anything worth their labour, but that afterwards the boats went a dredging in the mouth of the bay where we rode, and where, finding good store of oysters, they had gone no farther.