by Daniel Defoe
those climates Englishmenare very subject to.
We were now come to the month of April, 1715, having spent almost eightmonths in this trafficking wandering voyage from Manilla hither. Andwhoever shall follow the same, or a like track, if ever such a thingshall happen, will do well to make a year of it, and may find it verywell worth while.
I doubt not but there are many undiscovered parts of land to the west,and to the south also, of the first shore, of which I mentioned, that westayed trafficking for little bits of gold. And though it is true thatsuch traffick, as I have given an account of, is very advantageous initself, and worth while to look for, especially after having had a goodmarket for an out-ward-bound European cargo, according to the pattern ofours, at the Philippines, and which, by the way, they need not miss, Isay, as this trade for gold would be well worth while, so had we gonethe best way, and taken a course more to the south from Manilla, notgoing away east to the Ladrones, we should certainly have fallen in witha country, from the coast of New Guinea, where we might have foundplenty of spices, as well as of gold.
For why may we not be allowed to suppose that the country on the samecontinent, and in the same latitude, should produce the same growth?Especially considering them situated, as it may be called, in theneighbourhood of one another.
Had we then proceeded this way, no question but we might have fixed onsome place for a settlement, either English or French, whence acorrespondence being established with Europe, either by Cape Horn east,or the Cape De Bona Esperance west, as we had thought fit, they mighthave found as great a production of the nutmegs and the cloves as atBanda and Ternate, or have made those productions have been plantedthere for the future, where no doubt they would grow and thrive as wellas they do now in the Moluccas.
But we spun out too much time for the business we did; and though wemight, as above, discover new places, and get very well too, yet we didnothing in comparison of what we might be supposed to have done, had wemade the discovery more our business.
I cannot doubt, also, but that when we stood away south it was too late;for had we stood into the latitude of 67 deg. at first, as we didafterwards, I have good reason to believe that those islands which wecall the Moluccas, and which lie so thick and for so great an extent, goon yet farther, and it is scarce to be imagined that they break off justwith Gilloto.
This I call a mistake in me, namely, that I stood away east from thePhilippines to the Ladrones, before I had gone any length to the south.
But to come to the course set down in this work, namely, south-east andby east from the Ladrones, the places I have taken notice of, as thesedo not, in my opinion, appear to be inconsiderable and of no value, sohad we searched farther into them, I doubt not but there are greaterthings to be discovered, and perhaps a much greater extent of land also.For as I have but just, as it were, described the shell, having made nosearch for the kernel, it is more than probable, that within the countrythere might be greater discoveries made, of immense value too. Foreven, as I observed several times, whenever we found any people who hadgold, and asked them, as well as by signs we could make them understand,they always pointed to the rivers and the mountains which lay farther upthe country, and which we never made any discovery of, having little inour view but the getting what little share of gold the poor people hadabout them. Whereas had we taken possession of the place, and left anumber of men sufficient to support themselves, in making a farthersearch, I cannot doubt but there must be a great deal of that of whichthe inactive Indians had gotten but a little.
Nor had we one skilful man among us to view the face of the earth, andsee what treasure of choice vegetables might be there. We had indeed sixvery good surgeons, and one of them, whom we took in among theMadagascar men, was a man of great reading and judgment; but heacknowledged he had no skill in botanics, having never made it hisstudy.
But to say the truth, our doctors themselves (so we call the surgeons atsea) were so taken up in their traffick for gold, that they had noleisure to think of anything else. They did indeed pick up some shells,and some strange figured skeletons of fishes and small beasts, and otherthings, which they esteemed as rarities; but they never went a simpling,as we call it, or to inquire what the earth brought forth that was rare,and not to be found anywhere else.
I think, likewise, it is worth observing, how the people we met with,where it is probable no ships, much less European ships, had ever been,and where they had never conversed with enemies, or with nationsaccustomed to steal and plunder; I say, the people who lived thus, hadno fire, no rage in their looks, no jealous fears of strangers doingthem harm, and consequently no desire to do harm to others. They hadbows and arrows indeed, but it was rather to kill the deer and fowls,and to provide themselves with food, than to offend their enemies, forthey had none.
When, therefore, removing from thence, we came to other and differentnations, who were ravenous and mischievous, treacherous and fierce, weconcluded they had conversed with other nations, either by going tothem, or their vessels coming there. And to confirm me in this opinion,I found these fierce false Indians had canoes and boats, some of onekind, and some of another, by which perhaps, they conversed with theislands or other nations near them, and that they also received shipsand vessels from other nations, by which they had several occasions tobe upon their guard, and learned the treacherous and cruel parts fromothers which nature gave them no ideas of before.
As the natives of these places were tractable and courteous, so theywould be made easily subservient and assistant to any European nationthat would come to make settlements among them, especially if thoseEuropean nations treated them with humanity and courtesy; for I havemade it a general observation, concerning the natural disposition of allthe savage nations that ever I met with, that if they are once butreally obliged they will always be very faithful.
But it is our people, I mean the Europeans, who, by breaking faith withthem, teach them ingratitude, and inure them to treat their new comerswith breach of faith, and with cruelty and barbarity. If you once winthem by kindness, and doing them good, I mean at first, before they aretaught to be rogues by example, they will generally be honest, and bekind also, to the uttermost of their power.
It is to be observed, that it has been the opinion of all the sailorswho have navigated those parts of the world, that farther south thereare great tracts of undiscovered land; and some have told us they haveseen them, and have called them by such and such name, as, particularly,the Isles of Solomon, of which yet we can read of nobody that ever wenton shore on them, or that could give any account of them, except such asare romantic, and not to be depended upon.
But what has been the reason why we have hitherto had nothing butguesses made at those things, and that all that has been said of suchlands has been imperfect? The reason, if I may speak my opinion, hasbeen, because it is such a prodigious run from the coast of America tothe islands of the Ladrones, that the few people who have performed itnever durst venture to go out of the way of the trade-winds, lest theyshould not be able to subsist for want of water and provisions; and thisis particularly the case in the voyage from the coast of America only.
Whereas, to go the way which I have marked out, had we seen a necessity,and that there was no land to be found to the south of the tropic for asupply of provisions and fresh water, it is evident we could have goneback again, from one place to another, and have been constantlysupplied; and this makes it certain also, that it cannot be reasonablyundertaken by a ship going from the east, I mean the coast of America,to the west; but, from the west, viz., the Spice Islands to Americawest, it may be adventured with ease, as I have shown.
It is true, that William Cornelius Van Schouten and Francis le Maire,who first found the passage into the South Sea by Cape Horn, and not topass the Straits of Magellan, I say, they did keep to the southward ofthe tropic, and pass in part the same way I have here given an accountof, as by their journals, which I have by me at this time, is apparent.
And it is as true also, that t
hey did meet with many islands and unknownshores in those seas, where they got refreshment, especially freshwater: perhaps some of the places were the same I have described in thisvoyage, but why they never pursued that discovery, or marked thoseislands and places they got refreshments at, so that others in quest ofbusiness might have touched at them and have received the like benefit,that I can give no account of.
I cannot help being of opinion, let our map makers place them where theywill, that those islands where we so successfully fished for oysters, orrather for pearl, are the same which the ancient geographers have calledSolomon's Islands; and though they are so far south, the riches of themmay not be the less, nor are they more out of the way. On the contrary,they lie directly in the track which our navigators would take, if theythought fit, either to go or come between Europe and the East Indies,seeing they that come about Cape Horn seldom go less south than thelatitude of 63 or 64 deg.; and these islands, as I have said, lie in thelatitude of 40 to 48 deg. south, and
