by Daniel Defoe
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 Ihave said, in the latitude of 34 deg. 20'; but having had such good successin our inquiry or search after new continents, I resolved to steer tothe south and south-east, as far as till we should be interrupted byland or ice, determining to search this unknown part of the globe as faras nature would permit, that I might be able to give some account to myemployers, 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 ourbrigantine 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 tendays about the brigantine, and then we found more work to do to thesheathing of the Madagascar ship than we expected.
We stored ourselves here with fresh provisions and water, but gotnothing that we could properly call a store, except the flesh of aboutthirty deer, which we dried in the sun, and which proved indifferentlygood afterwards, but not extraordinary.
We sailed again the six-and-twentieth day after we came in, having afair wind at north and north-north-west, and a fresh gale which held usfive days without intermission; in which time, running away south andsouth-south-east, we reached the former latitude, where we had been, andmeeting with nothing remarkable, we steered a little farther to theeastward; but keeping a southerly course still, till we came into thelatitude of 41 deg., and then going due east, with the wind at north and bywest, we reckoned our meridian distance from the Ladrones, to be 50 deg.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 roundtop, cried Land! It was a clear fine morning, and the land he espiedbeing very high, it was found to be sixteen leagues distance; and thewind slackening, we could not get in that night, so we lay by tillmorning, when being fair with the land, we hoisted our boat to go andsound the shore, as usual. The men rowed in close with the shore andfound 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 tolook 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 alittle both ways on the shore, they found it to be an island, andwithout people; but said that about three leagues off to the southward,there seemed to be a Terra Firma, or continent of land, where it wasmore likely we should make some discovery.
The next day we filled water again, and shot some ducks, and the dayafter 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 thecoast, we found a bold shore and very good anchor hold, insix-and-twenty to thirty fathoms.
When we came on shore, we found people, but of a quite differentcondition from those we had met with before, being wild, furious, anduntractable; surprised at the sight of us, but not intimidated;preparing for battle, not for trade; and no sooner were we on shore butthey saluted us with their bows and arrows. We made signals of truce tothem, but they did not understand us, and we knew not what to offer themmore but the muzzles of our muskets; for we were resolved to see whatsort of folks they were, either by fair means or foul.
The first time, therefore, that they shot at our men with their bows andarrows, we returned the salute with our musket-ball, and kill two oftheir foremost archers. We could easily perceive that the noise of ourpieces 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 wecould 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 wasan island too, though a large one; and that the mainland lay still moreto the southward, about six leagues distance, so we resolved to look outfarther, and accordingly set sail the next day, and anchored under theshore 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 theappearance of any, but a charming pleasant valley, of about ten oreleven miles long, and five or six miles broad; and then it wassurrounded with mountains, which reached the full length, runningparallel with the valley, and closing it in to the sea at both ends; sothat it was a natural park, having the sea on the north side, and themountains in a semicircle round all the rest of it. These hills were sohigh, and the ways so untrod and so steep, that our men, who werecurious enough to have climbed up to the top of them, could find no waythat was practicable to get up, and after two or three attempts gave itover.
In this vale we found abundance of deer, and abundance of the same kindof sheep which I mentioned lately. We killed as many of both as we hadoccasion for; and, finding nothing here worth our staying any longerfor, except that we saw something like wild rice growing here, weweighed after three days, and stood away still to the south.
We had not sailed above two days with little wind and an easy sail, whenwe 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 theshore 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 wentnot on shore there any more.
Steering due south from hence in quest of the mainland, we went oneleven days more, and saw nothing significant, and, upon a fairobservation, I found we were in the latitude of 47 deg. 8' south; then Ialtered my course a little to the eastward, finding no land, and theweather very cold, and going on with a fresh gale at south-south-westfor four days, we made land again; but it was now to theeast-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 perceivedtill we were within half a league of it, which very much alarmed us, theland being low; and having found our error, we brought to and stood offand on till morning, when we saw the shore lie, as it were, under ourlarboard bow, within a mile and a quarter distance, the land low, butthe sea deep and soft ground. We came to anchor immediately, and sentour shallops to sound the shore, and the men found very good riding in alittle bay, under the shelter of two points of land, one of which made akind of hook, under which we lay secure from all winds that could blow,in seventeen fathoms good ground. Here we had a good observation, andfound ourselves in the latitude of 50 deg. 21'. Our next work was to findwater, and our boats going on shore, found plenty of good water and somecattle, but told us they could give no account what the cattle were, orwhat they were like. In searching the coast, we soon found this was anisland also, about eleven leagues in length, from north-west tosouth-east, what breadth we could not tell. Our men also saw some signsof inhabitants. The next day six men appeared at a distance, but wouldtake notice of no signals, and fled as soon as our men advanced. Ourpeople went up to the place were they lay, and found they had made afire of some dry wood; that they had laid there, as they suppose, allnight, though without covering. They found two pieces of old raggedskins of deer, which looked as if worn out by some that had used themfor clothing, and one piece of a skin of some other creature, which hadbeen rolled up into a cap for the head; also a couple of arrows of aboutfour feet long, very thick, and made of a hard and heavy wood; so theymust have very large and strong bows to shoot such arrows, andconsequently must be men of an uncommon strength.
Our men wandered about the country three or four days, with less cautionthan the nature of their situation required; for they were not among apeople of an innocent, inoffensive temper here, as before, but among awild, untractable nation, that perhaps had never seen creatures in theirown liken
ess before, and had no thought of themselves but of beingkilled and destroyed, and consequently had no thought of those they hadseen but as of enemies, whom they must either destroy, if they wereable, 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 werewho 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 harbourwhere we rode, we prepared to be gone. Here we found the first oystersthat we saw anywhere in the South Seas; and, as our men found them butthe day before we were to sail, they made great entreaty to me to letthem stay one day to get a quantity on board, they being veryrefreshing, as well as nourishing, to our men.
But I was more easily prevailed with to stay, when Captain Merlottebrought me, out of one oyster that he happened to open, a true orientalpearl, so large and so fine, that I
