[Footnote 201: The Lamentin, or Trichechus Manatus australis of naturalists.--E.]
The inhabitants are the most miserable wretches in the universe, having no houses or coverings but the heavens, and no garments except a piece of the bark of a tree tied round the waist. They have no sheep, poultry, or fruits, and subsist wretchedly on a few shell-fish, such as cockles, muscles, and periwinkles, living without any government or order, and cohabit promiscuously like brutes. Their bodies are straight, thin, and strong-limbed, having great heads and eye-brows, with round foreheads. Their eye-lids are constantly half closed, to keep out flies, which are here very numerous and troublesome. They have large bottle noses, thick lips, and wide mouth; and both men and women, young and old, wanted the two front teeth of the upper jaw. They have no beards, and their hair is short and curled like the negroes, their complexion being equally black with them. Their weapons are a kind of wooden swords or clubs, and long straight poles sharpened at one end. Of their language I can only say that they speak much in the throat. We landed several times, and brought the natives to some degree of familiarity with us, by giving them some old clothes, but could never prevail on them to assist us in carrying water or any other thing, as they seemed quite averse from labour.
We sailed hence on the 12th March, and on the 7th April got sight of Sumatra, whence we directed our course for the Nicobar islands, which we came in sight of on the 4th May, and anchored next day in a small bay at the N. end of the island of Nicobar Proper, in lat. 7° 30' N. This island produces plenty of cocoa-nuts, and mallories, a fruit as large as the bread-fruit of Guam, which the natives boil in covered jars.
Mr Hall, Mr Ambrose, and I, being desirous to leave the unruly crew among whom we had sailed so long, were set ashore at this island, intending to proceed for Acheen. We accordingly left this island on the 5th May, accompanied by four Malays and a Portuguese, in a Nicobar canoe, not much bigger than one of the London wherries used below bridge. On the 18th we had a violent storm, when we expected every moment to be swallowed up by the waves; but on the 19th, to our great joy, we saw Pulo Way, near the N.W. end of Sumatra, as was supposed, but it turned out to be the golden mountain of Sumatra, and at length arrived at Acheen in June. In July I went with Captain Weldon to Tonquin, and returned to Acheen in April, 1689. In September of that year I went to Malacca, and came back about Christmas, 1690. Soon after I went to Fort St George or Madras, where I remained five months, and came back to Bencoolen, an English factory on the west coast of Sumatra.
Before relating my return to England, it may be proper to give some account of Jeoly, the painted prince, who afterwards died at Oxford. He was purchased along with his mother at Mindanao by Mr Moody; and when Mr Moody and I went together to Bencoolen, he gave me at parting half the property of this painted prince and his mother, leaving them to my care. They were born in the island of Meangis, which abounds in gold, cloves, and nutmegs, as he afterwards told me. He was curiously painted, down the breast, behind, between the shoulders, and most of all on the fore part of his thighs, in the nature of flower-work. By what I could understand, this painting was done by pricking the skin, and rubbing in the gum of a tree called damurer, used instead of pitch in some parts of India. He told me, that the natives of his country wore gold ear-rings, and golden bracelets about their arms and legs; their food being potatoes, fowls, and fish. He told me also, that being one day in a canoe with his father and mother, they were taken by some fishers belonging to Mindanao, who sold them to the interpreter of Rajah Laut, with whom he and his mother lived as slaves for five years, and were then sold for fifty dollars to Mr Moody. Some time afterwards, Mr Moody gave me the entire property of both, but the mother soon died, and I had much ado to save the son. After my arrival in the Thames, being in want of money, I first sold part of my property in Prince Jeoly, and by degrees all the rest. He was afterwards carried about and shewn for money, and at last died of the small-pox at Oxford.
During my stay at Bencoolen I served as gunner of the fort; but when my time was expired, I embarked with my painted prince in the Defence, Captain Heath, in order to return to England. We sailed on the 25th January, 1691, in company with three other ships, and arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in the beginning of April. After a stay of six weeks, we set sail on the 13th May for St Helena, where we arrived on the 20th June. We left this island on the 2d July, and came to anchor in the Downs on the 16th September, 1691, after an absence of twelve years and a half from my native country.
[CHAPTER IX.]
VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY WILLIAM FUNNELL, IN 1703-1706.[202]
INTRODUCTION.
This voyage has usually passed under the name of Captain William Dampier; but as he proceeded only to the South Seas, and the circumnavigation was entirely completed by Mr William Funnell, who sailed originally as his mate, it seemed proper to place his name in the title of the voyage, instead of that of Captain Dampier, with whom, in this voyage, we have much less to do. It is just however to state, that it was on the credit of Captain Dampier, and in expectation that he would be able to do great things against the Spaniards in the South Sea, that this expedition was undertaken. The point aimed at was plunder, rather than discovery, yet there was something remarkable done even in this way; and the unknown islands met with by Mr Funnell, in his passage between the South Sea and India, strongly confirmed the reports of former navigators, of large, populous, and well-cultivated countries in those parts.[203] The narrative of Funnell also is well digested, and may be read with much satisfaction, as giving a fair and agreeable account of his adventures.