Eaton sails for the East Indies; Stops at the Ladrones. Eaton in his route to the East Indies stopped at Guahan, one of the Ladrone Islands, where himself and his crew acted towards the native Islanders with the utmost barbarity, which Cowley relates as a subject of merriment.
On their first arrival at Guahan, Eaton sent a boat on shore to procure refreshments; but the natives kept at a distance, believing his ship to be one of the Manila galeons, and his people Spaniards. Eaton's men served themselves with cocoa-nuts, but finding difficulty in climbing, they cut the trees down to get at the fruit. The next time their boat went to the shore, the Islanders attacked her, but were easily repulsed; and a number of them killed. By this time the Spanish Governor was arrived at the part of the Island near which the ship had anchored, and sent a letter addressed to her Commander, written in four different languages, to wit, in Spanish, French, Dutch, and Latin, to demand of what country she was, and whence she came. Cowley says, 'Our Captain, thinking the French would be welcomer than the English, returned answer we were French, fitted out by private merchants to make fuller discovery of the world. The Governor on this, invited the Captain to the shore, and at their first conference, the Captain told him that the Indians had fallen upon his men, and that we had killed some of them. He wished we had killed them all, and told us of their rebellion, that they had killed eight Fathers, of sixteen which were in a convent. He gave us leave to kill and take whatever we could find on one half of the Island where the rebels lived. We then made wars with these infidels, and went on shore every day, fetching provisions, and firing upon them wherever we saw them, so that
the greatest part of them left the Island. The Indians sent two of their captains to us to treat of peace, but we would not treat with them[47].'—'The whole land is a garden. The Governor was the same man who detained Sir John Narbrough's Lieutenant at Baldivia. Our Captain supplied him with four barrels of gunpowder, and arms.'
Josef de Quiroga was at this time Governor at Guahan, who afterwards conquered and unpeopled all the Northern Islands of the Ladrones. Eaton's crew took some of the Islanders prisoners: three of them jumped overboard to endeavour to escape. It was easy to retake them, as they had been bound with their hands behind them; but Eaton's men pursued them with the determined purpose to kill them, which they did in mere wantonness of sport[48]. At another time, when they had so far come to an accommodation with the Islanders as to admit of their approach, the ship's boat being on shore fishing with the seine, some natives in canoes near her were suspected of intending mischief. Cowley relates, 'our people that were in the boat let go in amongst the thickest of them, and killed a great many of their number.' It is possible that thus much might have been necessary for safety; but Cowley proceeds, 'the others, seeing their mates fall, ran away. Our other men which were on shore, meeting them, saluted them also by making holes in their hides.'
From the Ladrones Eaton sailed to the North of Luconia, and passed through among the Islands which were afterwards named by Dampier the Bashee Islands. The account given by Cowley is as follows: 'There being half a point East variation, till we came to latitude 20° 30′ N, where we fell in with a parcel of Islands lying to the Northward of Luconia. On the 23d day
of April, we sailed through between the second and third of the Northernmost of them. We met with a very strong current, like the Race of Portland. Nutmeg Island, North of Luconia. At the third of the Northernmost Islands, we sent our boat on shore, where they found abundance of nutmegs growing, but no people. They observed abundance of rocks and foul ground near the shore, and saw many goats upon the Island.'
Cowley concludes the narrative of his voyage with saying that he arrived home safe to England through the infinite mercy of God.
Coast of Peru. Davis attempts Guayaquil. Slave Ships captured. To return to Edward Davis: At Lobos de la Mar, the Mosquito Indians struck as much turtle as served all the crews. Shortly after, Davis made an attempt to surprise Guayaquil, which miscarried through the cowardice of one of his men, and the coldness of Swan to the enterprise. In the Bay of Guayaquil they captured four vessels; one of them laden with woollen cloth of Quito manufacture; the other three were ships coming out of the River of Guayaquil with cargoes of Negroes.
The number of Negroes in these vessels was a thousand, from among which Davis and Swan chose each about fifteen, and let the vessels go. Dampier entertained on this occasion different views from his companions. 'Never,' says he, 'was put into the hands of men a greater opportunity to enrich themselves. We had 1000 Negroes, all lusty young men and women, and we had 200 tons of flour stored up at the Galapagos Islands. With these Negroes we might have gone and settled at Santa Maria on the Isthmus of Darien, and have employed them in getting gold out of the mines there. All the Indians living in that neighbourhood were mortal enemies to the Spaniards, were flushed by successes against them, and for several years had been the fast friends of the privateers. Add to which, we should have had the North Sea
open to us, and in a short time should have received assistance from all parts of the West Indies. Many thousands of Buccaneers from Jamaica and the French Islands would have flocked to us; and we should have been an overmatch for all the force the Spaniards could have brought out of Peru against us.'