by Daniel Defoe
her arms fixed her eyes upon it without motion, or, asit were, without life, for a good while; then she took it and embracedit in the most passionate manner imaginable; when this was over, shefell a-crying so vehemently till she sobbed; and all this while spokenot 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 bedescribed, and at last she left the child, and came back to the placewhere our men were, and to the man that brought her child, and, as soonas she came up to him, she fell flat on the ground, as I have describedabove the queen and her women did, and up again immediately; and thusshe did three times, which it seems was her acknowledgment to him forbringing it back.
The next day, for her gratitude did not end here, she came down to ourtent, and brought with her two sheep, with a great back-burden of rootsof the kind which I said the natives steep in the water, and severalfruits 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. Ourmen were so moved at the affectionate carriage of this poor woman to herinfant, that they told me it brought tears from their eyes.
The man who received the present took the woman and dressed her upalmost as fine as he had done the child, and she went home like a kindof 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; thatthe grass in some places was very flourishing and good, being as high asour mid-thigh; and that the air was neither very hot, nor, as webelieved, very cold. We made an experiment of the fruitfulness of thesoil, for we took some white peas, and digging the ground up with aspade, we sowed some, and before we went away we saw them come out ofthe ground again, which was in about nine days.
We made signs to the people that they should let them grow, and that ifthey gathered them they were good to eat; we also sowed some Englishwheat, and let them know, as well as we could, what the use of them bothwas. But I make no doubt but they have been better acquainted with, bothby this time, by an occasion which followed.
Our men were so fond of this place, and so pleased with the temper ofthe people, the fruitfulness of the soil, and agreeableness of theclimate, that about twenty of them offered me, if I would give them myword to come again, or send to them to relieve and supply them withnecessaries, they would go on shore and begin a colony, and live alltheir days there. Nay, after this, their number came up tothree-and-thirty; or they offered, that, if I would give them thesloop, and leave them a quantity of goods, especially of such toys asthey knew would oblige the people to use them well, they would stay atall hazards, not doubting, as they told me, but they should come toEngland 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 colonyin before we came home, which was not at such an excessive distance fromEngland, so that it was scarce possible ever to relieve them. Thissatisfied them pretty well, and they were content to give over theproject; and yet, at last, which was more preposterous than all therest, five of our men and a boy ran away from us and went on shore, andwhat sort of life they led, or how they managed, we could not tell, forthey were too far off us to inquire after them again. They took a smallyawl with them, and it seems had furnished themselves privately withsome necessary things, especially, tools, a grindstone, a barrel ofpowder, some peas, some wheat, and some barley; so that it seems theyare resolved to plant there. I confess I pitied them, and when I hadsearched for them, and could not find them, I caused a letter to bewritten to them, and fixed it upon a post at the place where our shipcareened; and another letter on the south side, to tell them that insuch 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 boardslike a shed.
Here I left them hammocks for lodging, all sorts of tools for buildingthem a house, spades, shovels, pickaxes, an axe, and two saws, withclothes, shoes, stockings, hats, shirts, and, in a word, every thingthat 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 himpromise not to reveal it until they were gone, had told them that hewould persuade me, if he could, to leave them a farther supply; and badethem come to the place after the ships were gone, and that they shouldfind directions left for them on a piece of a board, or a letter fromhim set up upon a post. Thus they were well furnished with all thingsfor immediate living.
I make no doubt but they came to find these things; and, since they hada 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 ofEnglish people, in a part of the world that belongs neither to Europe,Asia, Africa, or America. I also left them every man another gun, acutlass, 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 sortof a posterity they will make, I cannot foresee, for I do not find byinquiry that the fellows had any great store of knowledge or religion inthem, 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 generationof English heathens in an age or two more; though I left them fiveBibles, 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 ofit for themselves or their progeny.
It is true, that this is a country that is remote from us of any in theyet discovered world, and consequently it would be suggested asunprofitable to our commerce; but I have something to allege in itsdefence, which will prove it to be infinitely more advantageous toEngland than any of our East India trade can be, or that can bepretended for it. The reason is plain in a few words; our East Indiatrade is all carried on, or most part of it, by an exportation ofbullion in specie, and a return of foreign manufactures or produce; andmost of these manufactures also, either trifling and unnecessary inthemselves, or such as are injurious to our own manufactures. The solidgoods brought from India, which may be said to be necessary to us, andworth sending our money for, are but few; for example,
1. The returns which I reckon trifling and unnecessary, are such asChina ware, coffee, tea, Japan work, pictures, fans, screens, &c.
2. The returns that are injurious to our manufactures, or growth of ourown country, are printed calicoes, chintz, wrought silks, stuffs, ofherbs and barks, block-tin, sugar, cotton, arrack, copper, and indigo.
3. The necessary or useful things are, pepper, saltpetre, dying-woodsand 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, theinnumerable nations of the Indies, China, &c., despising ourmanufactures, and filling us with their own.
On the contrary, the people in the southern unknown countries, beingfirst of all very numerous, and living in a temperate climate, whichrequires clothing, and having no manufactures, or materials formanufactures, of their own, would consequently take off a very greatquantity of English woollen manufactures, especially when civilized byour dwelling among them, and taught the manner of clothing themselvesfor their ease and convenience; and, in return for these manufactures,it is evident we should have gold in specie, and perhaps spices, thebest merchandise and return in the world.
I need say no more to excite adventurous heads to search out a countryby which such an improvement might be made, and which would be such anincrease of, or addition to, the wealth and commerce of our country.
Nor can it be objected here, that this nook of the country may noteasily be found by any one but by us, who have been there before, andperhaps not by us again exactly; for, not to enter into our journal ofobservations for their direction, I lay it down as a foundation, thatwhoever sailing over the South Seas
keeps a stated distance from thetropic, to the latitude of 56 to 60 deg., and steers eastward towards theStraits of Magellan, shall never fail to discover new worlds, newnations, and new inexhaustible funds of wealth and commerce, such asnever were yet known to the merchants of Europe.
This is the true ocean called the South Sea; that part which wecorruptly call so can be so in no geographical account, or by any rule,but by the mere imposition of custom, it being only originally calledso, because they that sailed to it were obliged to go round thesouthernmost part of America to come into it; whereas it ought indeed tobe called the West Sea, as it lies on the west side of America, andwashes the western shore of that great continent for near eight thousandmiles in length; to wit, from 56 deg. south of the line to 70 deg. north, andhow much farther we know not; on this account I think it ought to becalled the American Ocean, rather than with such impropriety the SouthSea.
But this part of the world where we were may rightly be called the SouthSea, by way of
