by Daniel Defoe
water, andswimming towards the shore where they were.
They first imagined they were porpoises, or sea-hogs, but could notsuggest anything of that kind at such a distance from the sea, when oneof the men looking at them through the glass, cried out they were allblack cattle, and that he could perceive their horns and heads; uponthis, others looking with their glasses also, said the same; immediatelyevery man ran to his gun, and, notwithstanding it rained hard, away theymarched down to the river's side with all the speed they could make.
By that time they reached the river bank, their wonder increased, forthey found it was a vast multitude of black cattle, who, finding thewaters rise between the two rivers, and, by a natural sagacity,apprehensive of being swept away with the flood, had one and all tookthe waters, and were swimming over to this side for safety.
It may very well be imagined, the fellows, though they wanted a few suchguests as these, yet were terrified with their multitude, and began toconsider what course to take when the creatures should come to land, forthere was a great number of them. Upon the whole, after a shortconsultation, for the creatures came on apace, they resolved to get intoa low ground, where they perceived they directed their course, and inwhich there were a great many trees, and that they would all get up intothe trees, and so lie ready to shoot among them as they landed.
Accordingly they did so, excepting five of them, who, by cutting downsome large boughs of a tree, had got into a little thicket close to thewater, and which they so fortified with the boughs of the trees, thatthey thought themselves secure within; and there they posted themselves,resolving to wait the coming of the cattle, and take their hazard.
When the creatures came to land, it was wonderful to observe how theylowed and roared, as it were to bid one another welcome on shore; andspreading themselves upon the neighbouring plain, immediately lay down,and rolling and stretching themselves, gave our people notice, that, inshort, they had swam a great way and were very much tired.
Our fellows soon laid about them, and the five who had fixed themselvesin the thicket had the fairest opportunity, for they killed eleven ortwelve of them as soon as they set their foot on shore, and lamed asmany.
And now they had a trial of skill, for as they killed as many as theyknew what to do with, and had their choice of beef, if they killed abull they let him lie, as having no use for him, but chose the cows, aswhat they thought was only fit for eating.
But, I say, now they had a trial of skill, namely, to see if they couldmaim some of the bulls so as not to kill them, and might bring them tocarry their luggage. This was a kind of a fruitless attempt, as weafterwards told them, to make a baggage-horse of a wild bull.
However, they brought it so far to pass, that, having wounded severalyoung bulls very much, after they had run roaring about with the hurt,they lay down and bled so, as that it was likely they would bleed todeath, as several of them really did; but the surgeon observing two ofthem to be low enough that he might go to them, and do what he wouldwith them, he soon stopped the bleeding, and in a word, healed thewounds. All the while they were under cure he caused grass and boughs oftrees to be brought to them for food, and in four or five days thecreatures were very well; then he caused them to be hampered with ropes,and tied together, so that they could neither fight with their heads, orrun away with their heels; and having thus brought them to a place justby their tent, he caused them to be kept so hungry, and almost starved,that, when meat was carried them, they were so tame and thankful, thatat last, they would eat out of his hand, and stretch out their heads forit, and when they were let a little looser, would follow him about for ahandful of grass, like a dog for a bone.
When he had brought them thus to hand, he, by degrees, loaded them, andtaught them to carry; and if they were unruly, as they were at first, hewould load them with more than they could well carry, and make themstand under that load two or three hours, and then come himself andbring them meat, and take the load off; and thus in a few days they knewhim so well, that they would let him do anything with them.
When our people came to decamp, they tied them both together, with suchropes as they had, and made them carry a very great weight. They triedthe same experiment with two more, but they failed; one died, and theother proved untractable, sullen, and outrageous.
The men had now lain here twelve days, having plenty of provision, inwhich time, the weather proving fair, the land waters ran off, and therivers came to their old channels, clear and calm. The men would gladlyhave gone back to the sands and flat shore of the lake, or to some otherpart, to look for gold; but that was impracticable now, so they marchedon, and in about two days they found the first river seemed to turn somuch to the south, that they thought it would carry them too far out oftheir way, for their orders were to keep about the latitude of 40 to 50 deg.as is said before, so they resolved to get over the first river as soonas they could; they had not gone far, but they found the river soshallow, that they easily forded it, bulls and all, and, being safelylanded, they travelled across the country to the great river, which theyfound also very low, though not like to be forded as the other was.
Now they thought they were in the way of their business, and here theyresolved to see if a tree or two might be found, big enough to make alarge canoe to carry them down this river, which, as it seemed large, sothe current seemed to be less rapid and furious, the channel being deepand full.
They had not searched long but they found three trees that they thoughtlarge enough, and they immediately went to work with them, felled andshaped them, and, in four days' time they had three handsome canoes, onelarger than the rest, and able to carry in all fifteen or sixteen men;but these were not enough, so they were forced to look out farther, fortwo trees more, and this took them up more time. However, in about aweek, they launched them all; as for days, they had lost their accountof time, so that, as they had sometimes no rule to distinguish one dayfrom another, so at last they quite forgot the days, and knew not aSunday from a working-day any longer.
While these canoes were making, the men, according to the old trade,fell to rummaging the shores of this river, as they had done the other,for gold, nor did they wholly lose their labour, for, in several places,they found some; and here it was that a certain number of them, takingone of the canoes that were first made, took a voyage of their ownheads, not only without command, but against command; and, having made alittle mast and sail to it, went up towards the lake, resolving to goquite into the lake to find another golden shore, or gold coast, as theycalled it.
To give a particular account of this wild undertaking, would be toolong, nor would the rogues give much account of it themselves; only, inshort, that they found a sand pretty rich in gold, worked upon it fivedays indefatigably, and got a sufficient quantity, had they brought itback, to have tempted the rest to have gone all away to the same place.But, at the end of five days, some were for returning and others forstaying longer, till the majority prevailed to come back, representingto the rest, that their friends would be gone, and they should be leftto starve in that wild country, and should never get home; so they allgot into the canoe again, but quarrelled when they were in, and that tosuch an unreasonable height, that, in short, they fought, overset theboat, lost all their gold and their arms, except three muskets whichwere lashed under their thouts, or benches of the canoe, spoiled theirammunition and provisions, and drowned one of their company, so theycame home to the rest mortified, wet, and almost famished.
This was a balk to them, and put a damp to their new projects; and yetsix of the same men were so bold afterwards as to demand to bedismissed, and a canoe given them, and they would go back they said tothe golden lake, where, they did not doubt, they should load the canoewith gold; and, if they found when they came back we were gone, theywould find their way back through the mountains, and go to the richSpaniard, who, they did not doubt, would get them license to go back toEurope with the galleons, and perhaps, they said, they might be inEngland before us.
But the captai
n quelled this mutiny, though there were four or five morecame into it. By showing them the agreement they had made with me, theircommander, the obligation they were under, and the madness of theirother proposal, he prevailed with them to go forward with the rest, andpursue the voyage, which he now represented to be very easy, being as itwere, all the way downhill, that is to say, with the stream, for theyall knew the river they were in must go to the sea, and that in or nearthe latitude which they knew the ship had appointed to wait for them.
However, to soften them a little, and in some measure to please them, hepromised, that if they met with any success in the search after gold inthe river they were in, as he did not question but they should, he wouldconsent to any reasonable stop that they should propose, not exceedingfive days in a place, and the places to be not less than five leaguesoff from one another.
Upon these terms they consented, and all embarked and came away, thoughextremely mortified for the loss of one of their companions, who was abrave
