Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia: / A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

by Richard Henry Major

EXTRACT TRANSLATED FROM BURGOMASTER WITSEN’S “NOORD EN OOST TARTARYE.”

FOL., AMST., 1705, p. 163.

“The north-west part of New Guinea, in 1½° south latitude, and beyond it to the south-east, was for the first time rightly explored in the year 1678, by order of the Dutch East India Company, and found almost everywhere to be enriched with very fine rivers, lakes, bays, etc., but, judging from its outward aspect, the country itself seems to be barren and uncultivated, being in few spots either planted or fenced in. In many parts of the interior there are extremely high mountains, which are seen by sailors at a great distance at sea as if towering above the clouds. The air is not very mild, but very often damp and foggy, so much so that most frequently in the afternoons the land is entirely hidden, which has caused the Dutch East India Company the loss of many ships.

“About the north-western parts, the natives are in general lean and of the middle size, jet black, not unlike the Malabars, but the hair of the head shorter and somewhat less curly than the Caffres. In the black pupil of their eyes gleams a certain tint of red, by which may in some measure be observed that bloodthirsty nature of theirs which has at different times caused us so much grief, from the loss of several of our young men, whom they have surprised, murdered, carried into the woods, and then devoured.

“They go entirely naked without the least shame, except their rajahs or petty kings, and their wives, which are not native Papoos, but mostly Ceram-Mestizoes, and are richly dressed after the manner of Ceram. Their weapons are bows of bamboo, with arrows of the same, to whose ends are fastened sharp pointed fish bones with dangerous barbs, which, when shot into the body, cannot be extracted without great difficulty. They likewise use lances, made of certain very heavy wild Penang wood: these they throw at their mark with great accuracy at a distance of six or seven fathoms. Some of them, living near the shore, use a certain kind of swords, sold to them by the people of Ceram, the hilt of which is tied to their hand by a rattan.

“Of their manners and religion, nothing else can be said than that, in many respects, they are more like wild beasts than reasonable human beings. Their women are delivered in the fields, or roads, or wherever they may happen to be taken in labour. After the birth they instantly put the infant in a bag, in which they carry their provisions, made of beaten bark of a tree. The women of the better class rub their faces with bruised coals, by which they make themselves look more like devils incarnate than human creatures; though it cannot be denied that they seem to possess, by the law of nature, a knowledge of the existence of a God, which they show by pointing with folded hands towards the heavens. For when any one lands at any place frequented by these people of Ceram, they require of us to raise our hands as they do: and with a sharp bamboo they cut both their own arms and those of their visitors. The mutual sucking of the blood from these wounds constitutes their oath, and implies a promise to do each other no mischief. Amongst them are found some letters or characters, written with a sort of red chalk on a rock. On this rock, also, were still to be seen some skulls and the bust of a man, looking as if put up as an ornament, with a shield and other weapons near it, the meaning of all which may be guessed at, but not fixed with certainty.

Their food consists of roots, tree fruits, herbs, etc., but chiefly fish, caught by them at low water in holes in the bed of the river, as we, when lying at anchor thereabouts, could distinctly see by the motion of the thousands of little lights which they used. They know very little of cooking or drying their food, but generally eat it raw, except pork, which they eat when it has been a little smoked, and is less than half roasted.

“In about 8° or 9° south latitude, we found a tall, terrible, and disgusting race of people, whose chiefs have the inside of the upper lip slit from the nose downwards, the two parts being kept asunder by what they call a gabbe-gabbe. The two sides of the nose, also, are bored through with sasappen, or thin awls, which gives their voices a frightful and hollow sound, as if coming out of a deep cellar.

“It is believed that Nova Guinea is divided from Hollandia Nova, or the south land, at about the latitude of 10° south. Of the country further south we have up to the present day no certain information, except that supplied by Abel Tasman, who sailed round the whole land and the coasts of the Dutch East India Company’s possessions, and who testifies to have found trees (beams) in which at intervals footsteps were cut to climb up by, about seven feet apart, and also with footsteps in the sand about fourteen or fifteen Dutch inches long, and every footstep six or six and a half feet from the other. I am informed by a mate who, about thirty or thirty-four years ago, lost his ship on the most westerly promontory of the south land, that he with some of the crew reached Batavia in the ship’s boat, and was despatched from thence to the place where he was shipwrecked with provisions, and in order to deliver their shipmates they left these; but they found none of them, though they saw impressions of large footsteps.[^[24]]

“The Ceramers are subjects, and likewise allies, of the Dutch Company, and for the most part expert sailors; and by them, and none else, is the coast of New Guinea visited. The inhabitants of New Guinea have for many years suffered from the treachery and murders of this people, who, not by force of arms but by cunning, have subdued the Papoos. Under the cloak of friendship they take their women (in which they are not very choice) for wives, and the children thus born, being very carefully instructed in the Mahomedan faith, are easily able to control these simple inhabitants of the woods. By this connection, also, the Ceramers, having gained the attachment of the women, always know how to escape the evil intentions which, for all that, the Papoos cannot restrain themselves from trying to put in practice against their visitors.

“The fruits of the country of New Guinea are very few, consisting chiefly in some few yams, cocoa nuts, betel nuts, and plantain trees, which are planted here and there, in the neighbourhood of their own places, by the Ceramers. The land does not seem to bring forth any wild plants; the inhabitants live on leaf zajor,[^[25]] roots of trees and herbs, but the bread of the Moluccas, in general called sagou, is not produced here, as far as I could learn. Only one sort of it is brought here by the Ceramers for their own provision, and also for barter. Fish of all sorts is everywhere so plentiful along the shore that they may be caught with the greatest ease in uncommon abundance; but they want nets and other fishing tackle, though they supply this defect in a masterly manner by their art in making their fish baskets, in which, at each spring tide, numbers of fish are caught. It is not known that any large animals are found here, except hogs, which are plentiful; but vermin, and in particular snakes, scorpions, and millepedes, are here in great numbers.

“The woods are filled with a variety of birds, making all day such an uncommon noise that it is really astonishing. They are seldom, if ever, shot by the inhabitants, as is sufficiently shown by their uncommon tameness; for, one being shot, the other remains sitting next to it. But our sportsmen must be careful in not entering too far into the woods, for the Papoos imitate the birds very accurately, in order to trepan and murder them, which has happened several times.

“They covet hatchets, cloaths, and beads, which are bartered for slaves. When a slave is sold, they cut off a lock of his hair, believing that in doing this they shall have more slaves. Those slaves are either prisoners of war, or trepanned in the woods; many of them are sold in Ternate and thereabouts. At the first they are so greedy in their eating that they would nearly burst, if not checked in their gluttony.

“The heathens of Nova Guinea and Hollandia Nova believe there is some divinity in the serpent, for which reason they represent them upon their vessels.

“The following is an extract from a letter written to me from Amboina, as an account of New Guinea and Hollandia Nova, otherwise called the South Land.

“‘The inhabitants of all New Guinea are a tall, ugly, and misshapen people, not so much by nature as choice; for they cut their nostrils asunder, that you may nearly see into their throats, from which it may be conceived what fine faces those must be, after having their promontories demolished in this manner. They go mostly naked, except those who live upon the islands, who, by their intercourse with the Ceram Lauers, are become a little more polished. Of them they get some little clothing, with which they cover themselves, though but scantily; but on the continent they are altogether a savage barbarous people, who can on no account be trusted. They are addicted to thieving and murder, so that the Ceram Lauers cannot trade with them except at a distance. They lay their goods down upon the beach, being put up in heaps, when the most venturesome among the strange traders comes forward and makes it understood by gestures and signs how much he wants for them. Their commerce consists in Tamboxe swords, axes to cut the trees down with, bad cloths, sagoe-bread, rice, and black sugar; but the rice and black sugar must be given beforehand, to induce them to trade. No traces of government, order, or religion are discernible amongst them. They live together like beasts: those upon the islands erect houses, and a kind of villages, placing their houses commonly upon posts, raised to a considerable height above the ground. On the continent they have slight huts, covered with leaves, like hog-styes: in them lie indiscriminately men, dogs, and hogs, upon the bare sand, otherwise they lie down in any place where they can but find white sand. They mourn more for the loss of a dog or hog than for their mothers. They bury their dead hogs and dogs, but not their deceased relations, whom they lay down upon high rocks to decay under the rain and sun, till nothing remains but the white bones, which at length they bury when they think proper. Their food consists chiefly of fishes, with which their seas abound, and of yams and plantains. They have no sagoe trees, neither do they know how to prepare the bread from it if they had any. Their arms are hasagays, clumsy and long arrows, and also a weapon formed from a sort of blue stone or slate, pointed at both ends, having a hole in the middle, in which a stick is put for a handle. With this they attack one another in such a manner, that with one stroke the skull is crushed to pieces: the farther you go to the south the more savage, tall, and ugly the people are, in particular from Lacca-iha to Oero-goba.

“‘A certain shallop from Banda, being on the coast, which stretches nearly east from Arou, they found there such large people, that one of our sailors was taken by his sleeve by one of them and shaken like a little boy; but he was rescued by his shipmates. To the south of this place a great promontory stretches itself to the west, called in the map Cape Falso, and again, to the south of this, is laid down the shallow bight, where it is supposed that Nova Guinea is divided from the South Land by a strait terminating in the South Sea, though, by reason of the shallowness, our people could not pass it; and thus it remains uncertain whether this strait goes through or not, but in the old Portuguese maps New Guinea is laid down as an island under the name of Ceira.[^[26]]

“‘I must here remark a circumstance which is but little noticed in European writings, which is, that in some logbooks the sea between Banda and the South Land is called the Milk Sea; the reason for this is, that twice a-year the sea thereabouts turns white, and is called by our people the white water. The so-called little white water comes first, with a dark or new moon, in the latter end of June; the great or second white water also comes in with a similar dark moon in August, sooner or later according as the south-east wind sets in fresh. This wind at that time brings with it in those parts unsettled rainy weather. By daytime the sea looks natural, but in the night as white as milk or snow, and so bright that it is nearly impossible to distinguish the water from the sky. At that time it is dangerous to navigate here in small vessels, the sea making, even in calm weather, a great swell, which, from the brightness of the water, cannot be discovered before they reach it. This white water comes first entirely from the south-east, about where lie the islands of Babba, Tenimmer, and Timor Laut, and, perhaps, wholly from that great bay made by the South Land and New Guinea. It continues thus till September, when it is gradually carried by the wind and currents towards the west, in large broad stripes, passing by Amboina and Boero till about Bouton, when it gradually loses itself; this water keeps itself always distinct from the sea water, as if it were divided by a band, a fact which often frightens inexperienced sailors at night, as they think they are running suddenly upon a great bank. No one has yet been able to explain this wonder of nature, nor give the cause of this quality of the water to glitter at night. It is thought most probable that it arises from sulphurous exhalations from the bottom of the sea, rising in this rough weather to the surface; for that it is impregnated with sulphur is shown to be likely by the number of sulphur mountains and volcanos found every where in the south-eastern islands, and which, perhaps, exist in greater number in the South Land. All this, however, is as yet uncertain; perhaps the chemists might be able to supply some explanation upon the subject, as they have the art of preparing waters which give light in the night time.

“‘It may also here be asked, what countries are Lucach, Beach, and Maletur, names inscribed in some of our maps, on some parts of that country which we call South Land, or Hollandia Nova. I reply that these names are, perhaps, taken from the uncertain and ambiguous narratives of voyages by Marcus Paulus and Vertomannus, who, perhaps, being led astray by the relations of others, have taken the large island of Timor for the South Land; for in Timor the traces of the word Maletur remain in Maleto, situated near Keylako, on the north side of Timor.’ Thus far the above-mentioned letter.”

ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, IN 1687–88,
BEING AN EXTRACT FROM HIS “NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,” PUBLISHED IN LOND., 1697, 8vo., pp. 461.

Being now clear of all the islands, we stood off south, intending to touch at New Holland, a part of Terra Australis Incognita, to see what that country would afford us. Indeed, as the winds were, we could not now keep our intended course (which was first westerly and then northerly) without going to New Holland, unless we had gone back again among the islands; but this was not a good time of the year to be among any islands to the south of the equator, unless in a good harbour.

The 31st day we were in latitude 13° 26´, still standing to the southward, the wind bearing commonly very hard at west, and we keeping upon it under two courses, and our myen, and sometimes a main-top-sail rift. About ten a clock at night we tackt and stood to the northward, for fear of running on a shoal, which is laid down in our drafts in latitude 13° 50´ or thereabouts: it bearing south by west from the east end of Timor: and so the island bore from us by our judgments and reckoning. At three a clock we tackt again, and stood S. by W. and S.S.W.

In the morning, as soon as it was day, we saw the shoal right ahead: it lies in 13° 50´ by all our reckonings. It is a small spit of land, just appearing above the water’s edge, with several rocks about it, 8 or 10 feet above high water. It lies in a triangular form, each side being about a league and a half. We stemm’d right with the middle of it, and stood within half a mile of the rocks, and sounded; but found no ground. Then we went about and stood to the north two hours; and then tackt and stood to the southward againe, thinking to weather it; but could not. So we bore away on the north side till we came to the east point, giving the rocks a small berth: then we trimb’d sharp, and stood to the southward, passing close by it, and sounded again, but found no ground.

This shoal is laid down in our drafts not above sixteen or twenty leagues from New Holland; but we did runne afterwards sixty leagues due south before we fell in with it: and I am very confident that no part of New Holland hereabouts lyes so far northerly by forty leagues as it is laid down in our drafts. For if New Holland were laid down true, we must of necessity have been driven near forty leagues to the westward of our course; but this is very improbable, that the current should set so strong to the westward, seeing that we had such a constant westerly wind. I grant that when the monsoon shifts first, the current does not presently shift, but runs afterwards near a month; but the monsoon had been shifted at least two months now. But of the monsoons and other winds, and of the currents, elsewhere, in their proper place. As to these here, I do rather believe that the land is not laid down true, than that the current deceived us; for it was more probable we should have been deceived before we met with the shoal than afterward: for on the coast of New Holland we found the tides keeping their constant course, the flood running N. by E. and the ebb S. by W.

The 4th day of January, 1688, we fell in with the land of New Holland, in the latitude of 16° 50´, having, as I said before, made our course due south from the shoal that we past by the 31st day of December. We ran in close by it, and finding no convenient anchorage, because it lies open to the N.W., we ran along shore to the eastward, steering N.E. by E., for so the land lies. We steered thus about twelve leagues; and then came to a point of land, from whence the land trends east and southerly for ten or twelve leagues: but how afterwards I know not. About three leagues to the eastward of this point there is a pretty deep bay, with abundance of islands in it, and a very good place to anchor in or to hale ashore. About a league to the eastward of that point we anchored January the 5th, 1688, two miles from the shore, in twenty-nine fathom, good hard sand and clean ground.

New Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent; but I am certain that it joyns neither to Asia, Africa, nor America. This part of it that we saw is all low even land, with sandy banks against the sea, only the points are rocky, and so are some of the islands in this bay.

The land is of a dry sandy soil, destitute of water, except you make wells: yet producing divers sorts of trees: but the woods are not thick, nor the trees very big. Most of the trees that we saw are dragon-trees as we supposed; and these, too, are the largest trees of any where. They are about the bigness of our large apple trees, and about the same height: and the rind is blackish, and somewhat rough. The leaves are of a dark colour; the gum distils out of the knots or cracks that are in the bodies of the trees. We compared it with some gum dragon, or dragon’s blood, that was aboard; and it was of the same colour and taste. The other sorts of trees were not known by any of us. There was pretty long grass growing under the trees, but it was very thin. We saw no trees that bore fruit or berries.

We saw no sort of animals, nor any track of beast, but once, and that seemed to be the tread of a beast as big as a great mastiff dog. Here are a few small land-birds, but none bigger than a blackbird: and but few sea-fowls. Neither is the sea very plentifully stored with fish, unless you reckon the manatee and turtle as such. Of these creatures there is plenty, but they are extraordinarily shy, though the inhabitants cannot trouble them much, having neither boats nor iron.

The inhabitants of this country are the miserablest people in the world. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for wealth are gentlemen to these; who have no houses and skin garments, sheep, poultry, and fruits of the earth, ostrich eggs, etc., as the Hodmadods have; and setting aside their human shape, they differ but little from brutes. They are tall, straight-bodied, and thin, with small long limbs. They have great head, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eyelids are always half closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes, they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them from coming to ones face; and without the assistance of both hands to keep them off, they will creep into ones nostrils, and mouth, too, if the lips are not shut very close. So that, from their infancy, being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as other people do; and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their heads as if they were looking at somewhat over them.

They have great bottle-noses, pretty full lips, and wide mouths. The two fore-teeth of their upper jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old and young: whether they draw them out I know not: neither have they any beards. They are long-visaged, and of a very unpleasing aspect, having no one graceful feature in their faces. Their hair is black, short, and curl’d, like that of the negroes; and not long and lank, like the common Indians. The colour of their skins, both of their faces and the rest of their body, is coal black, like that of the negroes of Guinea.

They have no sort of clothes, but a piece of the rind of a tree ty’d lyke a girdle about their waists, and a handful of long grass, or three or four small green boughs, full of leaves, thrust under their girdle to cover their nakedness.

They have no houses, but lye in the open air without any covering, the earth being their bed and the heaven their canopy. Whether they cohabit one man to one woman, or promiscuously, I know not; but they do live in companies, twenty or thirty men, women and children together. Their only food is a small sort of fish, which they get by making wares of stone across little coves or branches of the sea; every tide bringing in the small fish, and there leaving them for a prey to these people, who constantly attend there to search for them at low water. This small fry I take to be the top of their fishery: they have no instruments to catch great fish, should they come, and such seldom stay to be left behind at low water, nor could we catch any fish with our hooks and lines all the while we lay there. In other places at low water they seek for cockles, mussels, and periwincles. Of these shell-fish there are fewer still, so that their chiefest dependance is upon what the sea leaves in their wares, which, be it much or little, they gather up, and march to the places of their abode. There the old people, that are not able to stir abroad by reason of their age, and the tender infants, wait their return; and what Providence has bestowed on them, they presently broil on the coals and eat it in common. Sometimes they get as many fish as makes them a plentiful banquet, and at other times they scarce get every one a taste; but, be it little or much that they get, every one has his part, as well the young and tender as the old and feeble, who are not able to go abroad as the strong and lusty. When they have eaten they lie down till the next low water, and then all that are able march out, be it night or day, rain or shine, ’tis all one; they must attend the wares or else they must fast, for the earth affords them no food at all. There is neither herb, root, pulse, nor any sort of grain for them to eat that we saw; nor any sort of bird or beast that they can catch, having no instruments wherewithal to do so.

I did not perceive that they did worship anything. These poor creatures have a sort of weapon to defend their ware or fight with their enemies, if they have any that will interfere with their poor fishery. They did endeavour with their weapons to frighten us, who, lying ashore, deterr’d them from one of their fishing places. Some of them had wooden swords, others had a sort of lances. The sword is a piece of wood, shaped somewhat like a cutlass. The lance is a long strait pole, sharp at one end, and hardened afterwards by heat. I saw no iron, nor any other sort of metal; therefore it is probable they use stone hatchets, as some Indians in America do, described in chapter iv.

How they get their fire I know not, but probably, as Indians do, out of wood. I have seen the Indians of Bon-Airy do it, and have myself tryed the experiment. They take a flat piece of wood, that is pretty soft, and make a small dent in one side of it; then they take another hard round stick, about the bigness of one’s little finger, and sharpening it at one end like a pencil, they put that sharp end in the hole or dent of the flat soft juice, and then rubbing or twirling the hard piece between the palms of their hands, they drill the soft piece till it smokes, and at last takes fire.

These people speak somewhat through the throat, but we could not understand one word that they said. We anchored, as I said before, January the 5th, and seeing men walking on the shore, we presently set a canoe to get some acquaintance with them, for we were in hopes to get some provisions among them. But the inhabitants, seeing our boat coming, run away and hid themselves. We searched afterwards three days, in hopes to find their houses; but found none; yet we saw many places where they had made fires. At last, being out of hopes to find their habitations, we searched no farther; but left a great many toys ashore, in such places where we thought that they would come. In all our search we found no water, but old wells on the sandy bays.

At last we went over to the islands, and there we found a great many of the natives: I do believe there were forty on one island, men, women, and children. The men, at our first coming ashore, threatened us with their lances and swords; but they were frighted by firing one gun, which we fired purposely to scare them. The island was so small that they could not hide themselves; but they were much disordered at our landing, especially the women and children, for we went directly to their camp. The lustiest of the women snatching up their infants ran away howling, and the little children run after squeaking and bawling, but the men stood still. Some of the women, and such people as could not go from us, lay still by a fire, making a doleful noise as if we had been coming to devour them; but when they saw that we did not intend to harm them they were pretty quiet, and the rest that fled from us at our first coming returned again. This, their place of dwelling, was only a fire, with a few boughs before it, set up on that side the wind was of.

After we had been here a little while the men began to be familiar, and we cloathed some of them, designing to have some service of them for it; for we found some wells of water here, and intended to carry two or three barrels of it aboard. But being somewhat troublesome to carry to the canoes, we thought to have made these men to have carried it for us, and therefore we gave them some cloathes; to one an old pair of breeches, to another a ragged shirt, to a third a jacket that was scarce worth owning, which yet would have been very acceptable at some places where we had been, and so we thought they might have been with these people. We put them on them, thinking that this finery would have brought them to work heartily for us; and our water being filled in small long barrels, about six gallons in each, which were made purposely to carry water in, we brought these our new servants to the wells, and put a barrel on each of their shoulders for them to carry to the canoa. But all the signs we could make were to no purpose, for they stood like statues, without motion, but grinned like so many monkeys, staring one upon another; for these poor creatures seem not accustomed to carry burthens, and I believe that one of our ship-boys of ten years old would carry as much as one of them. So we were forced to carry our water ourselves, and they very fairly put the cloathes off again and laid them down, as if cloathes were only to work in. I did not perceive that they had any great liking to them at first, neither did they seem to admire anything that we had.

At another time, our canoa being among these islands seeking for game, espy’d a drove of these men swimming from one island to another; for they have no boats, canoes, or bark-logs. They took up four of them and brought them aboard; two of them were middle aged, the other two were young men about eighteen or twenty years old. To these we gave boiled rice, and with it turtle and manatee boiled. They did greedily devour what we gave them, but took no notice of the ship or any thing in it, and when they were set on land again they ran away as fast as they could. At our first coming, before we were acquainted with them or they with us, a company of them who lived on the main came just against our ship, and standing on a pretty high bank, threatened us with their swords and lances by shaking them at us; at last the captain ordered the drum to be beaten, which was done of a sudden with much vigour, purposely to scare the poor creatures. They hearing the noise ran away as fast as they could drive, and when they ran away in haste they would cry, Gurry, Gurry, speaking deep in the throat. Those inhabitants also that live on the main would always run away from us, yet we took several of them. For, as I have already observed, they had such bad eyes that they could not see us till we came close to them. We did always give them victuals and let them go again, but the islanders, after our first time of being among them, did not stir for us.

When we had been here about a week, we hal’d our ship into a small sandy cove, at a spring-tide, as far as she would float; and at low water she was left dry, and the sand dry without us near half a mile, for the sea riseth and falleth here about five fathoms. The flood runs north by east, and the ebb south by west. All the neep-tides we lay wholly aground, for the sea did not come near us by about a hundred yards. We had therefore time enough to clean our ship’s bottom, which we did very well. Most of our men lay ashore in a tent, where our sails were mending; and our strikers brought home turtle and manatee every day, which was our constant food.

While we lay here, I did endeavour to perswade our men to go to some English factory, but was threatened to be turned ashore and left here for it.

This made me desist, and patiently wait for some more convenient place and opportunity to leave them than here; which I did hope I should accomplish in a short time, because they did intend, when they went from hence, to bear down towards Cape Comorin. In their way thither they design’d to visit also the Island Cocos, which lieth in latitude 12° 12´ north, by our drafts: hoping there to find of that fruit, the island having its name from thence.

EXTRACT FROM SLOAN MS. 3236, ENTITLED “THE ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM DAMPIER, WITH OTHERS [1686–87], WHO LEFT CAPTAIN SHERPE IN THE SOUTH SEAS,
AND TRAVALED BACK OVER LAND THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF DARIEN,” pp. 445 to 450.

December 1687–88.

Wee stood away to the southward, intending to see New Holland, and mett nothing worth observing till the first day of December, and then, being in latit. 13° 50´, wee were close aboard a showle, which wee lay by for in the night; it lyes S. by W. from the N.W. end of Timore about seventy leagues. Wee steered to weather it but could not, therefore bore away to the eastward of it; it lyes in a triangle, with many sharp rocks about water, and on the south side is a small spitt of land.

This showle is laid downe within twenty leagues of New Holland due south, but wee made our course south, yett run into latitude 16° 50´ before wee made land, which is forty odd leagues; so that by our runn, except wee had a current against us, which wee did not perceive, New Holland is laid downe nearer then it should be to those islands in the south seas by forty leagues.

The fourth day of January 1687–88 wee fell in with the land of New Holland in latitude 16° 50´, the land low and a deepe sandy bay, but no shelter for us, therefore wee runn downe along the shore which lyes N.E. by E., about twelve leagues; then wee came to a point with an iland by it, but soe neare the maine that wee could not goe within it a league; to the westward of this pointe is a showle a league from the maine.

From this pointe the land runs more easterly and makes a deepe bay with many ilands in it; the sixth day wee came into this bay, and anchored about foare miles to the eastward of the forementioned pointe, in eighteen fathome water, a mile from the shoare, good clean sand.

I drew a drafte of this land and the bay where we road, but at the Necquebar,[^[27]] when we oversett our prows, I lost it and some others that were not in my book; those that I had placed in my book were all preserved, but all wett.

Wee sent our boate ashoare to speak with the natives, but they would not abide our comeing, soe wee spent three dayes in seekeing their houses, being in hopes to allure them with toyes to a comerce.

For wee begun to be scarce of provision, and did not question but these people could relieve us; but after all our search neare the sea side and in the country wee found ourselves disapointed, for the people of this country have noe houses nor any thing like a house, neither have they any sorte of graine or pulse; flesh they have not, nor any sorte of cattle, not soe much as catt or dog, for, indeed, they have noe occasion of such creatures unless to eat them, for of that food which they have they leave no fragments. They have noe sorte of fowle, neither tame nor wild, for the latter I saw very few in the country, neither did wee see any kind of wilde beast in the country, but the track of one.

I believe there are not any of the natives in the country farr from the sea, for they gett their living out of sea without nett or hooke; but they build wares with stones cross the bays, and every low water, whether night or day, they search those wares for what the sea hath left behinde, which is all that they have to depend on for a livelyhood; some times they are bountyfully rewarded for their paines, and at other times providence seemes to be nigardly, scarce giving them a taste instead of a belly full. The fish which they take they carry home to their famelyes, whoe lye behinde a few boughs stuck up to keepe the wind from them. All that are of age to search those wares goe downe at the time of low water, leaving only the old sicke weake people and children at home, who make a fire against the coming of their friends to broyle their fish, which they soone devoure without salt or bread. Their habitations are neare those wares and remove as occasion serves, for they are not troubled with household goods nor clothes, all that they weare is only a piece of rine [rind] about their wastes, under which they thrust either a hand full of long grasse or some small boughs before to cover their privityes.

They are people of good stature, but very thin and leane, I judge for want of foode. They are black, yett I believe their haires would be long if it was comed out, but for want of combs it is matted up like a negroes haire. They have, all that I saw, two fore teeth of their upper jaw wanting, both men, women, and children.

They swim from one iland to the other or toe and from the maine, and have for armes a lance sharpned at one end and burned in the fire to harden it, and a sword made with wood, which is sharpe on one side; these weapons, I judge, are cutt with stone hatchetts, as I have seene in the West India.

The country is all low land, with sand hills by the sea side; within it is a wood, but not extraordinary thicke; the chiefest trees are dragon trees, which are bigger then any other trees in the woods: wee found neither river, brooke, nor springs, but made wells in the sand, which aforded as good water, where wee watered our ships.

The first spring after wee came hither wee hail’d our ship into a sandy bay, where shee lay dry all the neepe tides, for it flows there right up and downe above five fathome; the flood setts north by east, and the ebb setts S. by W.

There are many turtle and manatoe in this bay, which our strikers supplyed us with all the time we lay here, and one time they mett some of the natives swimming from one iland to the other, and tooke up foure of them and brought aboard, whoe tooke noe notice of any thing that wee had noe more than a bruite would; wee gave them some victualls, which they greedily devoured, and being sett out of the ship ran away as fast as their leggs (for the ship was now dry on the sand) could carry them. Wee mett divers of them on the ilands, for they could not run from us there, but the women and children would be frighted at our approach.

Wee tarried here till the twelfth day of February, in which time wee cleaned our ship, mended our sailes, and filled our water; and when our time drew neare to depart from thence, I motioned goeing to Fort St. George, or any settlement where the English had noe fortification, and was threatened to be turned a shoare on New Holland for it; which made me desist, intending, by God’s blessing, to make my escape the first place I came neare, for wee were now bound into India for Cape Comorin, if wee could fetch it.