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

We were eighteen days on our passage from the Strait of Mindora to Guam, and stayed six days at the latter, furnishing ourselves with provisions, appearing all this while with French colours, and Captain Merlotte as commander. However we made no great ceremony here with the Spanish governor, as I have said already, only that Captain Merlotte, after we had been here two days, sent a letter to him by a French officer, who, showing his commission from the king of France, the governor presently gave us product, as we call it, and leave to buy what provisions we wanted.

In compliment for this civility, we sent the governor a small present of fine scarlet camlet and two pieces of baize; and he made a very handsome return, in such refreshments as he thought we most wanted.

There was another reason for our keeping in this latitude till we came to the Ladrones; namely, that all the southern side of that part of the way, between the Philippines and the Ladrones, is so full of islands, that, unless we had been provided with very good pilots, it would have been extremely hazardous; and, add to this, that, beyond these islands south, is no passage; the land, which they call Nova Guinea, lying away east and east-south-east, farther than has yet been discovered; so that it is not yet known whether that country be an island or the continent.

Having for all these reasons gone to the Ladrones, and being sufficiently satisfied in our reasons for going away from thence to the southward, and having stored ourselves, as above, with whatever those islands produced, we left the Ladrones the 10th day of September in the evening, and stood away east-south-east, with the wind north-north-west, a fresh gale; after this, I think it was about five days, when, having stretched, by our account, about a hundred and fifty leagues, we steered away more to the southward, our course south-east-by-south.

And now, if ever, I expected to do something by way of discovery. I knew very well there were few, if any, had ever steered that course; or that, if they had, they had given very little account of their travels. The only persons who leave anything worth notice being Cornelius Vanschouten and Francis Le Mare, who, though they sailed very much to the south, yet say little to the purpose, as I shall presently show.

The sixteenth day after we parted from the Ladrones, being, by observation, in the latitude of 17° south of the line, one of our men cried, A sail! a sail! which put us into some fit of wonder, knowing nothing of a ship of any bulk could be met with in those seas; but our fit of wonder was soon turned to a fit of laughter, when one of our men from the foretop, cried out, Land! which, indeed, was the case; and the first sailor was sufficiently laughed at for his mistake, though, giving him his due, it looked at first as like a sail as ever any land at a distance could look.

Towards evening we made the land very plain, distance about seven leagues south-by-east, and found that it was not an island, but a vast tract of land, extended, as we had reason to believe, from the side of Gilolo, and the Spice Islands, or that which we call Nova Guinea, and never yet fully discovered. The land lying away from the west-north-west to the south-east-by-south, still southerly.

I, that was for making all possible discovery, was willing, besides the convenience of water, and perhaps fresh provisions, to put in here, and see what kind of country it was; so I ordered the brigantine to stand in for the shore. They sounded, but found no ground within half a league of the shore; so they hoisted out their boat, and went close in with the shore, where they found good anchor-hold in about thirty-six fathom, and a large creek, or mouth of a river; here they found eleven to thirteen fathom soft oozy sand, and the water half fresh at the mouth of the creek.

Upon notice of this, we stood in, and came all to an anchor in the very creek; and, sending our boats up the creek, found the water perfectly fresh and very good upon the ebb, about a league up the river.

Among all the islands in this part of the world, that is to say, from the Philippines eastward, of which there are an infinite number, we never came near any but we found ourselves surrounded with canoes and a variety of boats, bringing off to us cocoa-nuts, plantains, roots, and greens, to traffic for such things as they could get; and that in such numbers, we were tired with them, and sometimes alarmed, and obliged to fire at them. But here, though we saw great numbers of people at a distance from the shore, yet we saw not one boat or bark, nor anything else upon the water.

We stayed two or three days taking in fresh water, but it was impossible to restrain our men from going on shore, to see what sort of a country it was; and I was very willing they should do so. Accordingly, two of our boats, with about thirty men in both of them, went on shore on the east side of the creek or harbour where our ship lay.

They found the country looked wild and savage; but, though they could find no houses, or speak with the inhabitants, they saw their footsteps and their seats where they had sat down under some trees; and after wandering about a little, they saw people, both men and women, at a distance; but they ran away from our men, at first sight, like frightened deer; nor could they make any signal to them to be understood; for when our men hallooed and called after them, they ran again as if they had been bewitched.

Our men gathered a great variety of green stuff, though they knew not of what kind, and brought it all on board, and we eat a great deal of it; some we boiled and made broth of, and some of our men, who had the scurvy, found it did them a great deal of good; for the herbs were of a spicy kind, and had a most pleasant agreeable taste: but none of us could tell what to call them, though we had several men on board who had been among the Spice Islands before in Dutch ships.

We were very uneasy that we could get nothing here but a little grass and potherbs, as our men called it, and the men importuned me to let them have two boats, and go up the river as high as the tide would carry them; this I consented to, being as willing to make the discovery as they; so I ordered the captain of the Madagascar ship, who had, as I have said, been formerly my second mate, to go along with them.

But in the morning, a little before the flood was made, I was called out of my cabin to see an army, as they told me, coming to attack us. I turned out hastily enough, as may be easily conjectured, and such an army appeared as no ship was ever attacked with; for we spied three or four hundred black creatures, come playing and tumbling down the stream towards us, like so many porpoises in the water. I was not satisfied at first that they were human creatures, but would have persuaded our men, that they were sea-monsters, or fishes of some strange kind.

But they quickly undeceived us, for they came swimming about our ships, staring and wondering and calling to one another, but said not one word to us, at least, if they did, we could not understand them.

Some of them came very near our ships, and we made signs to them to come on board, but they would not venture. We tossed one of them a rope, and he took hold of it boldly; but as soon as we offered to pull, he let go, and laughed at us; another of them did the like, and when he let go, turned up his black buttocks, as in sport at us; the language of which, in our country, we all knew, but whether it had the same meaning here, we were at a loss to know.

However, this dumb manner of conversing with them we did not like, neither was it to any purpose to us; and I was resolved, if possible, to know something more of them than we could get thus; so I ordered out our pinnace with six oars, and as many other men well armed, to row among them; and, if possible, to take some of them and bring them on board. They went off, but the six-oar pinnace, though a very nimble boat, could not row so fast as they could swim; for, if pulling with all their might, they came near one of them, immediately, like dog and duck, they would dive, and come up again thirty or forty yards off; so that our men did not know which way to row after them; however, at last getting among the thickest of them, they got hold of two, and with some difficulty dragged them in; but think of our surprise, to find they were not men, but both young women. However, they were brought on board naked as they were.

When they came on board, I ordered they should have two pieces of linen wrapped round their waists to cover them, which they seemed well pleased with. We gave them also several strings of beads, and our men tied them about their necks, and about their arms like bracelets, and they were wonderfully delighted with their ornaments. Others of our men gave each of them a pair of scissors, with needles and some thread, and threading the needles, showed them how to sew with them; we also gave them food, and each of them a dram of arrack, and made signs to know of them where they lived; they pointed up to the river, but we could by no means understand them.

When we had dressed them up thus with necklaces, and bracelets, and linen, we brought them up upon the deck, and made them call to their country folk, and let them see how well they were used, and the girls beckoned them to come on board, but they would not venture.

However, as I thought the discovery we were to make, would be something the easier on account of the usage of these two young women; for they were not, as we guessed, above twenty or two-and-twenty years of age; we resolved that the boat should go on, as we intended, up the river; and that, as the two women pointed that way, we should carry them along with us.

Accordingly we sent two shallops, or large boats, which carried together sixty men, all well armed. We gave them store of beads and knives and scissors, and such baubles with them, with hatchets and nails, and hooks, looking-glasses, and the like; and we built up the sides and sterns of the boats, and covered them with boards, to keep off arrows and darts, if they should find occasion, so that they looked like London barges. In this posture, as soon as the tide or flood was made up, our men went away, carrying a drum and a trumpet in each boat; and each boat had also two patereroes, or small cannon, fixed on the gunnel near the bow.

Thus furnished, they went off about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and to my very great uneasiness, I heard no more of them for four days. The whole ship's company were indeed surprised at their stay, and the captain of the sloop would fain have had me let him have sailed up the river with the sloop, as far as the channel would serve; which really we found was deep enough. Indeed, as I was unwilling to run any more risks, I could not persuade myself, but that the force I had already sent was sufficient to fight five thousand naked creatures, such as the natives seemed to be, and therefore, I was very unwilling to send. However, I consented at last to have our long-boat and two smaller boats manned with fifty-four men more, very well armed, and covered from arrows and darts as the other had been, to go up the river, upon their solemn promise, and with express order, to return the next day, at farthest; ordering them to fire guns as they went up the river, to give notice to their fellows, if they could be heard, that they were coming; and that, in the mean time, if I fired three guns they should immediately return.

They went away with the tide of flood, a little before noon, and went up the river about five leagues, the tide running but slowly, and a strong fresh of land-water that checked the current coming down; so that when the tide was spent they came to an anchor. They found the river, contrary to their expectation, continued both deep enough, and was wider in breadth than where the ships were at anchor; and that it had another mouth or outlet into the sea some leagues farther east, so that the land to the east of us, where our men went on shore, was but an island, and had not many inhabitants, if any; the people they had seen there having possibly swam over the other arm or branch of the river, to observe our ships the nearer. As our men found they could go no farther for want of the tide, they resolved to come to an anchor; but, just as they were sounding, to see what ground they had, and what depth, a small breeze at north-east sprang up, by which they stemmed the current and reached up about two leagues farther, when they hove over their grappling in five fathom water, soft ground; so that all this way, and much farther, every one of our ships might have gone up the channel, being as broad as the Thames is about Vauxhall.

It must be observed, that all along this river they found the land, after they came past the place where the other branch of the river broke off, eastward, was full of inhabitants on both sides, who frequently came down to the water-side in haste to look at our boats; but always when our men called to them, as if they thought our men inquired after their fellows, they pointed up the river, which was as much as to say, they were gone farther that way.

However, our men not being able to go any farther against the tide, took no notice of that; but, after a little while some of them, in one of the smaller boats, rowed towards the shore, holding up a white flag to the people in token of friendship; but it was all one, and would have been all one for aught we knew, if they had held up a red flag, for they all ran away, men, women, and children; nor could our men by any persuasions, by gestures and signs of any kind, prevail on them to stay, or hardly so much as to look at them.

The night coming on, our men knew not well what course to take; they saw several of the Indians' dwellings and habitations, but they were all at a distance from the river, occasioned, as our men supposed, by the river's overflowing the flat grounds near its banks, so as to render those lands not habitable.

Our men had a great inclination to have gone up to one of the towns they saw, but he that commanded would not permit it; but told them, if they could find a good landing-place, that they might all go on shore, except a few to keep the boats, if they chose to venture; upon which the smallest boat rowed up about a mile, and found a small river running into the greater, and here they all resolved to land; but first they fired two muskets, to give notice, if possible, to their comrades, that they were at hand; however, they heard nothing of them.

What impression the noise of the two muskets made among the Indians they could not tell, for they were all run away before.

They were no sooner on shore, but, considering they had not above two hours day, and that the Indian villages were at least two miles off, they called a council, and resolved not to march so far into a country they knew so little of, and be left to come back in the dark; so they went on board again, and waited till morning. However, they viewed the country, found it was a fertile soil, and a great herbage on the ground; there were few trees near the river; but farther up where the Indian dwellings were, the little hills seemed to be covered with woods, but of what kind they knew not.

In the morning, before break of day, some of our men fancied they heard a gun fired up the river; upon which the officer ordered two muskets to be fired again, as had been done the evening before; and in about a quarter of an hour they were answered by the like firing, by which our men knew that their comrades heard them; so, without pursuing their intended landing, the tide being then running upwards, they weighed, and set to their oars, having little or no wind, and that which they had blowing down the stream.

After they had gone about a league, they heard a confused noise at a great distance, which surprised them a little at first; but, as they perceived it drew nearer and nearer, they waited awhile, when they discovered first here and there some people, then more, and then about two or three hundred men and women together, running, and every one carrying something.

Where it was they were going to, or what it was they carried, our men could not tell till they came nearer, when they found that they were all loaded with provisions, cocoa-nuts, roots, cabbages, and a great variety of things which the men knew little of; and all these were carrying down to our ships, as we understood afterwards, in gratitude for our kind usage of the two young women.

When these people saw our men and their three boats, they were at a full stop, and once or twice they were ready to lay down all their loads, and run for it; but ours made signs of peace, and held up a white flag to them.

Some of them, it seems, having, as we found, conversed with our men, had a little more courage than the rest, and came to the shore side, and looked at the boats. One of our men thought of a stratagem to make known our desire of peace with them. Taking a string of beads and some toys, he held them up at the end of the boat-hook staff, and showed them to the Indians, pointing to them with his hand, and then pointing with the other hand to what the Indians carried, and to his mouth, intimating that we wanted such things to eat, and would give him the beads for them.

One of the Indians presently understood him, and threw himself into the water, holding a bundle of plants, such as he had trussed up together, upon his head, and swimming with the other hand, came so near the boat, where our men held out the staff, as to reach the end of the staff, take off the string of beads and toys, and hang his bunch of trash, for it was not better, upon the hook, and then went back again, for he would come no nearer.

When he was gotten on shore again, all his comrades came about him to see what he had got; he hung the string of beads round his neck, and ran dancing about with the other things in his hand, as if he had been mad.

What our men got was a trifle of less worth than a good bunch of carrots in England, but yet it was useful, as it brought the people to converse with us; for after this they brought us roots and fruits innumerable, and began to be very well acquainted with us.

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 shore 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 ship or boat, whether any European ship, 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 shipping, 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 gratitude 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 flourishing 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 shore, 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 passed the southern tropic; and that we were in the latitude 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'.