by Daniel Defoe
thus several times, till, in short, we haddisposed almost of the whole cargo; and now our men began to beconvinced that we had laid out our voyage very right, for never wascargo better sold; and, as we resolved to pursue our voyage for NewSpain, we had taken in a cargo very proper to sell there, and so,perhaps, to double the advantage we had already made.
In the mean time, all our hands were at work to store ourselves anew,with such provisions as could be had here for so long a run as we knewwe were to have next; namely, over the vast Pacific Ocean, or South Sea,a voyage where we might expect to see no land for four months, except wetouched at the Ladrones, as it might happen; and our greatest anxietywas for want of water, which our whole ship could scarce be able to stowsufficient for our use; and our want of casks was still as bad as thewant of water, for we really knew not what to put water in when we hadit.
The Spaniards had helped us to some casks, but not many; those that theycould spare were but small, and at last we were obliged to make use ofabout two hundred large earthen jars, which were of singular use to us.We got a large quantity of good rice here, which we bought of a Chinesemerchant, who came in here with a large China vessel to trade, whobought of us also several of our European goods.
Just as we were ready to sail, a boat came from the town of Manilla, andbrought a new merchant, who wanted more English goods, but we had butfew left; he brought with him thirty chests of calicoes, muslins,wrought silks, some of them admirably fine indeed, with fifteen bales ofromals, and twelve tons of nutmegs. We sold him what goods we had left,and gave him money for the rest, but had them at a price so cheap, aswas sufficient to let us know that it was always well worth while forships to trade from Europe to the East Indies; from whence they are sureto make five or six of one. Had more of these merchants come on board,we were resolved to have laid out all the gold and silver we had, whichwas a very considerable quantity.
The last merchant who came on board us was a Spaniard; but I found thathe spoke very good French, and some English; that he had been in Englandsome years before, and understood English woollen manufactures verywell. He told me he had all his present goods from Acapulco, but thatthey were then excessively dear. He had considerable dealings with theChinese, and some with the coast of Coromandel and Bengal, and kept avessel or two of his own to go to Bengal, which generally went twice ina year.
I found be had great business with New Spain, and that he generally hadone of the Acapulco ships chiefly consigned to him; so that he was fullof all such goods as those ships generally carried away from theManillas, and, had we traded with him sooner, we should have had morecalicoes and muslins than we now had; however, we were exceedingly wellstored with goods of all sorts, suitable for a market in Peru, whither Iresolved to go.
We continued chaffering after this manner about nine weeks, during whichtime we careened our ships, cleaned their bottoms, rummaged our gold,and repacked some of our provisions; endeavouring, as much as possible,to keep all our men as fully employed as we could, to preserve them inhealth, and yet not to overwork them, considering the heat of theclimate.
Some time before we were ready to sail, I called all the warrantofficers together, and told them, that as we were come to a countrywhere abundance of small things were to be bought, and going to acountry where we might possibly have an opportunity to sell them againto advantage, I would advance to every officer a hundred dollars, uponaccount of their pay, that they might lay it out here, and dispose of itagain on the coast of New Spain to advantage. This was very acceptableto them, and they acknowledged it; and here, besides this, by theconsent of all our superior officers, I gave a largess or bounty of fivedollars a man, to all our foremast men; most of which I believe theylaid out in arrack and sugar, to cheer them up in the rest of thevoyage, which they all knew would be long enough.
We went away from Manilla, in the island of Luconia, the 15th of August,1714; and, sailing awhile to the southward, passed the Straits betweenthat island and Mindora, another of the Philippines, where we met withlittle extraordinary, except extraordinary lightning and thunders, suchas we never heard or saw before, though, it seems, it is very familiarin that climate; till, after sixteen days' sailing, we saw the isle ofGuam, one of the Ladrones, or Islands of Thieves, for so much the wordimports; here we came to an anchor, Sept. 3, under the lee of a steepshore, on the north side of the isle of Guam; but, as we wanted no tradehere, we did not at first inquire after the chief port, or Spanishgovernor, or anything of that kind; but we changed our situation thenext day, and went through the passage to the east side of the island,and came to an anchor near the town.
The people came off, and brought us hogs and fowls, and several sorts ofroots and greens, articles which we were very glad of, and which webought the more of because we always found that such things were good tokeep the men from the scurvy, and even to cure them of it if they hadit. We took in fresh water here also, though it was with somedifficulty, the water lying half a mile from the shore.
When I parted from Manilla, and was getting through the Strait betweenthe island of Luconia and that of Mindora, I had some thoughts ofsteering away north, to try what land we might meet with to thenorth-east of the Philippines; and with intent to have endeavoured tomake up into the latitude of 50 or 60 deg., and have come about again to thesouth, between the island of California and the mainland of America; inwhich course, I did not question meeting with extraordinary newdiscoveries, and, perhaps, such as the age might not expect to hear of,relating to the northern world, and the possibility of a passage out ofthose seas, either east or west, both which, I doubt not, would befound, if they were searched after this way; and which, for aught Iknow, remain undiscovered for want only of an attempt being made bythose seas, where it would be easy to find whether the Tartarian seasare navigable or not; and whether Nova Zembla be an island or joined tothe main; whether the inlets of Hudson's Bay have any opening into theWest Sea; and whether the vast lakes, from whence the great river ofCanada is said to flow, have any communication this way or not.
But though these were valuable discoveries, yet, when I began to cast upthe account in a more serious manner, they appeared to have no relationto, or coherence with, our intended voyage, or with the design of ouremployers, which we were to consider in the first place, for though itis true that we were encouraged to make all such kinds of usefuldiscoveries as might tend to the advantage of trade, and the improvementof geographical knowledge and experience, yet it was all to be sodirected as to be subservient to the profits and advantages of a tradingand cruising voyage.
It is true that these northern discoveries might be infinitely great,and most glorious to the British nation, by opening new sources ofwealth and commerce in general: yet, as I have said, it was evident thatthey tended directly to destroy the voyage, either as to trading or tocruising, and might perhaps end in our own destruction also. Forexample, first of all, if adventuring into those northern seas, weshould, by our industry, make out the discovery, and find a passage,either east or west, we must follow the discovery so as to venture quitethrough, or else we could not be sure that it was really a discovery;for these passages would not be like doubling Cape de Bon Esperance, onthe point of Africa, or going round Cape Horn, the southernmost point ofAmerica, either of which were compassed in a few days, and thenimmediately gave an opening into the Indian or Southern Oceans, wheregood weather and certain refreshment were to be had.
Whereas, for the discovery in the north, after having passed thenorthernmost land of Grand Tartary, in the latitude of 74 even to 80 deg.,and perhaps to the very north pole, there must be a run west, beyond themost northerly point of Nova Zembla, and on again west-south-west, aboutthe North Kyn and North Cape, about six hundred leagues, before we couldcome to have any relief of the climate; after that, one hundred andsixty leagues more, and even to Shetland and the north of Scotland,before we could meet with any relief of provisions, which, after thelength we must have run, from the latitude of 31/2 deg., where we now were atthe Philippine Islands,
to 74 deg. north, being near five thousand miles,would be impossible to be done, unless we were sure to victual, andfurnish ourselves again with provisions and water by the way, and thatin several places.
As to the other passage east, towards the continent of America, we hadthis uncertainty also; namely, that it was not yet discovered whetherthe land of California was an island or a continent, and if it shouldprove the latter, so as that we should be obliged to come back to thewest, and not be able to find an opening between California and the landof north America, so as to come away to the coast of Mexico, toAcapulco, and so into the South Sea, and at the same time should notfind a passage through Hudson's Bay, &c., into the North Sea, and so toEurope, we should not only spoil the voyage that way also, but shouldinfallibly perish by the severity of the season and want of provisions.
All these things argued against any attempt that way; whereas, on theother hand, for southern discoveries, we had this
