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

by Daniel Defoe

a great variety of green stuff, though they knew not ofwhat 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 thescurvy, found it did them a great deal of good; for the herbs were of aspicy kind, and had a most pleasant agreeable taste: but none of uscould tell what to call them, though we had several men on board who hadbeen among the Spice Islands before in Dutch ships.

  We were very uneasy that we could get nothing here but a little grassand potherbs, as our men called it, and the men importuned me to letthem have two boats, and go up the river as high as the tide would carrythem; this I consented to, being as willing to make the discovery asthey; so I ordered the captain of the Madagascar ship, who had, as Ihave 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 outof my cabin to see an army, as they told me, coming to attack us. Iturned out hastily enough, as may be easily conjectured, and such anarmy appeared as no ship was ever attacked with; for we spied three orfour hundred black creatures, come playing and tumbling down the streamtowards us, like so many porpoises in the water. I was not satisfied atfirst 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 wordto 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 tocome 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 letgo, 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, toknow something more of them than we could get thus; so I ordered out ourpinnace with six oars, and as many other men well armed, to row amongthem; 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, couldnot row so fast as they could swim; for, if pulling with all theirmight, they came near one of them, immediately, like dog and duck, theywould dive, and come up again thirty or forty yards off; so that our mendid not know which way to row after them; however, at last getting amongthe thickest of them, they got hold of two, and with some difficultydragged 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 theywere.

  When they came on board, I ordered they should have two pieces of linenwrapped round their waists to cover them, which they seemed well pleasedwith. We gave them also several strings of beads, and our men tied themabout their necks, and about their arms like bracelets, and they werewonderfully delighted with their ornaments. Others of our men gave eachof them a pair of scissors, with needles and some thread, and threadingthe 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 wherethey lived; they pointed up to the river, but we could by no meansunderstand them.

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

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

  Accordingly we sent two shallops, or large boats, which carried togethersixty men, all well armed. We gave them store of beads and knives andscissors, and such baubles with them, with hatchets and nails, andhooks, looking-glasses, and the like; and we built up the sides andsterns of the boats, and covered them with boards, to keep off arrowsand darts, if they should find occasion, so that they looked like Londonbarges. In this posture, as soon as the tide or flood was made up, ourmen went away, carrying a drum and a trumpet in each boat; and each boathad also two patereroes, or small cannon, fixed on the gunnel near thebow.

  Thus furnished, they went off about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, andto my very great uneasiness, I heard no more of them for four days. Thewhole ship's company were indeed surprised at their stay, and thecaptain of the sloop would fain have had me let him have sailed up theriver with the sloop, as far as the channel would serve; which really wefound 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 wassufficient to fight five thousand naked creatures, such as the nativesseemed to be, and therefore, I was very unwilling to send. However, Iconsented at last to have our long-boat and two smaller boats mannedwith fifty-four men more, very well armed, and covered from arrows anddarts as the other had been, to go up the river, upon their solemnpromise, 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 totheir 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 upthe river about five leagues, the tide running but slowly, and a strongfresh of land-water that checked the current coming down; so that whenthe tide was spent they came to an anchor. They found the river,contrary to their expectation, continued both deep enough, and was widerin breadth than where the ships were at anchor; and that it had anothermouth or outlet into the sea some leagues farther east, so that the landto the east of us, where our men went on shore, was but an island, andhad not many inhabitants, if any; the people they had seen there havingpossibly swam over the other arm or branch of the river, to observe ourships the nearer. As our men found they could go no farther for want ofthe tide, they resolved to come to an anchor; but, just as they weresounding, to see what ground they had, and what depth, a small breeze atnorth-east sprang up, by which they stemmed the current and reached upabout two leagues farther, when they hove over their grappling in fivefathom water, soft ground; so that all this way, and much farther, everyone of our ships might have gone up the channel, being as broad as theThames 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 brokeoff, eastward, was full of inhabitants on both sides, who frequentlycame down to the water-side in haste to look at our boats; but alwayswhen our men called to them, as if they thought our men inquired aftertheir 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, tookno notice of that; but, after a little while some of them, in one of thesmaller boats, rowed towards the shore, holding up a white flag to thepeople in token of friendship; but it was all one, and would have beenall one for aught we knew, if they had held up a red flag, for they allran away, men, women, and children; nor could our men by anypersuasions, 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 sawseveral of the Indians' dwellings and habitations, but they were all ata distance from the river, occasioned, as our men supposed, by theriver's overflowing the flat grounds near its banks, so as to renderthose lands not habitable.

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

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

  They were no sooner on shore, but, considering they had not above twohours 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 countrythey knew so little of, and be left to come back in the dark; so theywent on board again, and waited till morning. However, they viewed thecountry, 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 Indiandwellings were, the little hills seemed to be covered with woods, but ofwhat kind they knew not.

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

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

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

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

  Some of them, it seems, having, as we found, conversed with our men, hada little more courage than the rest, and came to the shore side, andlooked at the boats. One of our men thought of a stratagem to make knownour 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 tothe Indians, pointing to them with his hand, and then pointing with theother hand to what the Indians carried, and to his mouth, intimatingthat we wanted such things to eat, and would give him the beads forthem.

  One of the Indians presently understood him, and threw himself into thewater, 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, takeoff the string of beads and toys, and hang his bunch of trash, for itwas not better, upon the hook, and then went back again, for he wouldcome no nearer.

  When he was gotten on shore again, all his comrades came about him tosee what he had got; he hung the string of beads round his neck, and randancing 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 carrotsin England, but yet it was useful, as it brought the people to conversewith 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 firstheard, and in a little while after saw, their two great boats, withtheir fellows, coming down the river, at about two miles' distance, withtheir drums and trumpets, and making noise enough.

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

  They had, it seems, some hogs and some goats; but our men got only sixof the latter, which were at hand, and were very good. But that whichwas most remarkable was, that whereas in all the islands within thetropics the people are thievish, treacherous, fierce, and mischievous,and are armed with lances, or darts, or bows and arrows; these appearedto be a peaceable, quiet, inoffensive people; nor did our men see anyweapon among them except a long staff, which most of the men carried intheir hands, being made of a cane, about eight foot long, and an inchand a half in diameter, much like a quarter-staff, with which they wouldleap 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 foundsome of the women covered from the middle downward. They seemed to havebeen strangers to the sea; nor did we find so much as any one boat amongthem: nor did any of the inhabitants dwell near the sea; but cultivatedtheir lands very well, in their way; having abundance of greens andfruits growing about their houses; and upon which we found they chieflylived. The climate seemed to be very hot, and yet the country veryfruitful.

  These people, by all we could perceive, had never had any converse withthe 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 beprobable 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 nearestdistance to the Ladrones, being at least four hundred leagues; and fromthe Spice Islands, and the country of New Guinea, much more; but as tothe 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, theirpeaceable disposition, and their way of living upon the fruits andproduce of the earth; also their cultivation, and the manner of theirhabitations; no signs of rapine or violence appearing among them. Ourstay here was so little, that we could make no inquiry into theirreligion, manner of government, and other customs; nor have I room tocrowd many of these things into this account. They went, indeed, as Ihave said, naked, some of them stark naked, both men and women, but Ithought they differed in their countenances from all the wild people Iever saw; that they had something singularly honest and sincere in theirfaces, nor did we find anything of falsehood or treachery among them.

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

  In a word, it was on their account they sent that little army of peopleto us loaden with provisions, which our men met before the two shallopscame down. But all the provisions they had consisted chiefly in fruitsof the earth, cocoa-nuts, plantains, oranges, lemons, &c., and maize, orIndian corn. We were not a sufficient time with them to inquire afterwhat traffick they had, or whether anything fit for us. They had severalfragrant 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 littleof the country, more than that it seemed to be very pleasant, but ver
yhot; the woods were all flourishing and green and the soil rich, butcontaining little that could be the subject of trade; but an excellentplace to be a baitland, or port of refreshment, in any voyage that mightafterwards be undertaken that way.

  We set sail, I say, from hence in seven days, and, finding the coast liefairly on our starboard side, kept the land on board all the way,distance about three leagues; and it held us thus, about a hundred andtwenty 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, wecould not tell.

  We went on two or three days more, our course south-east, when we madeland again; but found it only to be two small islands, lying south andby east, distance nine leagues. We stood on to them, and two of ourboats 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 outthe continuance of the former land; but as we found no land, so a greatsea 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 atnorth-west and by west, for seven days more; in all which time, we sawnothing but the open sea every way; and making an observation found wehad passed the southern tropic; and that we were in the latitude of 26 deg.13', after which we continued our course still southerly for severaldays more, until we found, by another observation, that we were in 32 deg.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 inthe night; and in the morning found the land bearing east and by south,distance one league and a half; a good shore, and on sounding, aboutfive-and-thirty fathom, stony ground. We now hoisted our boat out, andsent it on shore for discoveries, to sound the depth of the water, andsee for a good harbour to put