The proper season being now arrived, in their judgment, they sailed from the Texel on the 14th of June, and anchored in the Downs on the 17th, when William Schouten went ashore at Dover to hire an experienced English gunner. This being effected, they again set sail the same evening; and meeting a severe storm in the night between the 21st and 22d, they took shelter under the Isle of Wight. Sailing thence on the 25th, they arrived at Plymouth on the 27th, where they hired a carpenter named Muydenblick. Sailing finally from Plymouth on the 28th June, with the wind at N.E. and fair weather, they proceeded on their voyage.
Distinct rules were now established in regard to the allowance of provisions at sea, so that the men might have no reason to complain, and the officers might be satisfied of having enough for the voyage. The rate fixed upon was, a cann of beer for each man daily; four pounds of biscuit, with half a pound of butter and half a pound of suet weekly; and five large Dutch cheeses for each man, to serve during the whole voyage. All this was besides the ordinary allowance of salt meat and stock-fish. Due orders were likewise issued for regulating the conduct of the men and officers. Particularly on all occasions of landing men in a warlike posture, one of the masters was always to command: and in such ports as they might touch at for trade, the supercargo was to go on shore, and to have the exclusive management of all commercial dealings. It was also enjoined, that every officer should be exceedingly strict in the execution of his duty, but without subjecting the men to any unnecessary hardships, or interfering with each other in their several departments. The officers were also warned against holding any conversation with the men, in regard to the objects of the voyage, all conjectures respecting which were declared fruitless, the secret being solely known to the first captain and supercargo. It was also declared, that every embezzlement of stores, merchandises, or provisions, should be severely punished; and, in case of being reduced upon short allowance, any such offence was to be punished with death. The two supercargoes were appointed to keep distinct journals of all proceedings, for the information of the company of adventurers, that it might appear how far every man had done his duty, and in what manner the purposes of the voyage had been answered.
On the 11th July they had sight of Madeira, and on the 13th they passed through between Teneriff and Grand Canary, with a stiff breeze at N.N.E. and a swift current. The 15th they passed the tropic of Cancer; and the 20th in the morning fell in with the north side of Cape de Verd. Procuring here a supply of water, by leave of the Moorish alcaide or governor, for which they had to pay eight states of iron, they left the cape on the 1st August, and came in sight of the high land of Sierra Leona on the 21st of that month, as also of the island of Madre bomba, which lies off the south point of Sierra Leona, and north from the shallows of the island of St Ann. This land of Sierra Leona is the highest of all that lie between Cape Verd and the coast of Guinea, and is therefore easily known.
On the 30th of August, they cast anchor in eight fathoms water on a fine sandy bottom, near the shore, and opposite a village or town of the negroes, in the road of Sierra Leona. This village consisted only of eight or nine poor thatched huts. The Moorish inhabitants were willing to come on board to trade, only demanding a pledge to be left on shore for their security, because a French ship had recently carried off two of the natives perfidiously. Aris Clawson, the junior merchant or supercargo, went accordingly on shore, where he drove a small trade for lemons and bananas, in exchange for glass beads. In the mean time some of the natives came off to the ships, bringing with them an interpreter who spoke many languages. They here very conveniently furnished themselves with fresh water, which poured down in great abundance from a very high hill, so that they had only to place their casks under the waterfall. There were here whole woods of lemon-trees, and lemons were so cheap that they might have had a thousand for a few beads, and ten thousand for a few common knives; so that they easily procured as many as they wished, and each man had 150 for sea store. The 3d September they found a vast shoal of fish, resembling a shoemaker's knife.
They left Sierra Leona on the 4th September; and on the 5th October, being in lat 4° 27' S. they were astonished by receiving a violent stroke on the bottom of one of the ships, though no rock appeared to be in the way. While forming conjectures on the occasion of this shock, the sea all about the ship began to change colour, appearing as if some great fountain of blood had opened into it. This sudden alteration of the water seemed not less wonderful than the striking of the ship; but the cause of both was not discovered till after their arrival in Port Desire, when the ship was laid on shore to clean her bottom, when they found a large horn, of a substance resembling ivory, sticking fast in the bottom. It was entirely firm and solid, without any internal cavity, and had pierced through three very stout planks, grazing one of the ribs of the ship, and stuck at least a foot deep in the wood, leaving about as much on the outside, up to the place where it broke off.[104]
[Footnote 104: This must have been a Narvai, or Narwhal, the Monodon Monoceros, Licorne, or Unicornu Marinum, of naturalists, called likewise the Unicorn Fish, or Sea Unicorn.--E.]
On the 25th of October, when no person knew whereabouts they were except Schouten, the company was informed that the design of the voyage was to endeavour to discover a new southern passage into the South Sea; and the people appeared well pleased, expecting to discover some new golden country to make amends for all their trouble and danger. The 26th they were in lat. 6° 25' S. and continued their course mostly to the south all the rest of that month, till they were in lat 10° 30' S. The 1st September they had the sun at noon to the north; and in the afternoon of the 3d they had sight of the isle of Ascension, in 20° S. otherwise called the island of Martin Vaz, where the compass was observed to vary 12° to the east of north. The 21st, in lat. 38° S. the compass varied 17° in the same eastern direction. The 6th December, they got sight of the mainland of South America, appearing rather flat, and of a white colour, and quickly after fell in with the north head-land of Port Desire, anchoring that night in ten fathoms water with the ebb-tide, within a league and a half of the shore. Next day, resuming their course southwards, they came into Port Desire at noon, in lat. 47° 40' S. They had very deep water at the entrance, where they did not observe any of the cliffs which were described by Van Noort, as left by him to the northward on sailing into this haven, all the cliffs they saw being on the south side of the entrance, which therefore might be those mentioned by Van Noort, and misplaced in his narrative by mistake.
In consequence of this error, they overpassed Port Desire to the south, so as to miss the right channel, and came into a crooked channel, where they had four and a half fathoms water at full sea, and only fourteen feet at low water. By this means the Unity got fast aground by the stern, and had infallibly been lost, if a brisk gale had blown from the N.E. But as the wind blew west from the land, she got off again without damage. Here they found vast quantities of eggs upon the cliffs; and the bay afforded them great abundance of muscles, and smelts sixteen inches long, for which reason they called it Smelt Bay. From this place they sent a pinnace to the Penguin Islands, which brought back 150 of these birds, and two sea lions.
Leaving Smelt Bay on the 8th December, they made sail for Port Desire, a boat going before to sound the depth of the channel, which was twelve and thirteen fathoms, so that they sailed in boldly, having a fair wind at N.E. After going in little more than a league, the wind began to veer about, and they cast anchor in twenty fathoms; but the ground, consisting entirely of slippery stones, and the wind now blowing strong at N.W. they drifted to the south shore, where both ships had nearly been wrecked. The Unity lay with her side to the cliffs, yet still kept afloat, and gradually slid down towards the deep water as the tide fell. But the Horn stuck fast aground, so that at last her keel was above a fathom out of the water, and a man might have walked under it at low water. For some time, the N.W. wind blowing hard on one side, kept her from falling over; but, that dying away, she at length fell over on her bends, when she was given over for lost; but next flood, coming on with calm weather, righted her again. Having escaped this imminent danger, both ships went farther up the river on the 9th, and came to King's Island, which they found full of black sea-mews, and almost entirely covered with their eggs; so that a man without moving from one spot might reach fifty or sixty nests with his hands, having three or four eggs in each. They here accordingly were amply provided with eggs, and laid in several thousands of them for sea store.
The 11th the boats were sent down the river in search of fresh water, on the south side, but found it all brackish and unpleasant. They saw ostriches here, and a sort of beasts like harts, having wonderfully long necks, and extremely wild. Upon the high hills, they found great heaps of stones, under which some monstrous carcass had been buried, some of the bones being ten or eleven feet long, which, if having belonged to rational creatures, must have been the bones of giants.[105] They here had plenty of good fish and fowls, but no water could be found for some days.