The island of St Antonio is inhabited by about 500 negroes, including men, women, and children, who subsist chiefly on goats, and also cultivate a small quantity of cotton. On the sea-side they have extensive plantations of lemons and oranges, whence they gather great quantities every year. These were very readily supplied to the Dutch by the negroes in exchange for mercery goods, but they saw neither hogs, sheep, nor poultry in the island.
Sailing from St Vincent's on the 25th July, they anchored in the road of Sierra Leona on the 11th August. Here on the 15th some of the crew being on shore, eat freely of certain nuts resembling nutmegs, which had a fine taste, but had scarcely got on board when one of them dropt down dead, and before he was thoroughly cold he was all over purple spots. The rest recovered by taking proper medicines. Sierra Leona is a mountain on the continent of Africa, standing on the south side of the mouth of the river Mitomba, which discharges itself into a great bay of the sea. The road in which ships usually anchor is in the lat. of 8° 20' N. This mountain is very high, and thickly covered with trees, by which it may be easily known, as there is no mountain of such height any where upon the coast. There grow here a prodigious number of trees, producing a small kind of lemons called limasses, (limes?) resembling those of Spain in shape and taste, and which are very agreeable and wholesome, if not eaten to excess. The Dutch fleet arrived here at the season when this fruit was in perfection, and having full leave from the natives, the people eat them intemperately; by which, and the bad air, the bloody flux increased much among them, so that they lost forty men between the 11th of August and the 5th September. Sierra Leona abounds in palm-trees, and has some ananas, or pine-apples, with plenty of wood of all sorts, besides having an exceedingly convenient watering-place opposite to the anchorage.
They sailed from Sierra Leona on the 4th September, on which day the admiral fell sick. On the 29th they were off the island of St Thomas, just on the north side of the line, and anchored on the 1st of October at Cape Lopo Gonzalves, in lat. 0° 50' S. At this place the surgeon of the Maurice was convicted on his own confession of having poisoned seven sick men, because they had given him much trouble, for which he was beheaded. On the 30th of October they anchored in the road of Annobon, where they obtained hogs and fowls, and were allowed to take in water, and to gather as many oranges as they thought proper. The east end of this island, where are the road and village, is in lat. 1° 30' S. and long. 6° E. from Greenwich. The island is about six leagues in circuit, consisting of high and tolerably good land, and is inhabited by about 150 families of negroes, who are governed by two or three Portuguese, to whom they are very submissive. If any of them happen to be refractory, they are immediately sent away to the island of St Thomas, a punishment which they greatly dread. The island abounds in ananas, bananas, cocoa-nuts, tamarinds, and sugar-canes; but the principal inducement for ships touching here is the great plenty of oranges, of which the Dutch gathered upwards of 200,000, besides what the seamen eat while on shore. These oranges were of great size and full of juice, some weighing three quarters of a pound, and of an excellent taste and flavour, as if perfumed. They are to be had ripe all the year round, but there is one season in which they are best and fittest for keeping, which was past before the Dutch arrived, and the oranges were then mostly over ripe and beginning to rot. The island also produces lemons, and has plenty of oxen, cows, goats, and hogs, which the negroes bartered for salt. On the S.E. part of the island there is a good watering-place, but difficult to find, which is commanded by a stone breast-work, whence the negroes might greatly annoy any who attempted to water by force. They grow here some cotton, which is sent to Portugal. The natives are treacherous, and require to be cautiously dealt with.
The fleet left Annobon on the 4th November, and on the 6th January, 1624, they were in lat. 44° 40' S. where they saw many sea-gulls, and much herbage floating on the water, whence they supposed themselves near the continent of South America. On the 19th the sea appeared as red as blood, proceeding from an infinite quantity of a small species of shrimps. On the 28th they lost sight of their bark, in which were eighteen men, three of them Portuguese. These people, as they afterwards learnt, having in vain endeavoured to rejoin the fleet, determined to return to Holland. Being in want of water, they sailed up the Rio de la Plata till they came into fresh water, after which they continued their voyage, suffering incredible hardships, and the utmost extremity of want, till they arrived on the coast of England, where they ran their vessel on shore to escape a privateer belonging to Dunkirk, and afterward got back to Holland.
The 1st February the fleet came in sight of land, being Cape de Pennas.[135] Next day they found themselves at the mouth of the straits. This is easily distinguished, as the country on the east, called Saten Land, is mountainous, but broken and very uneven; while that on the west, called Maurice Land by the Dutch, or Terra del Fuego, has several small round hills close to the shore. The 6th they had sight of Cape Horn; and on the 11th, being in lat. 58° 30' S. they had excessively cold weather, which the people were ill able to bear, being on short allowance. On the 16th they were in lat. 56° 10' S. Cape Horn being then to the east of them, and anchored on the 17th in a large bay, which they named Nassau bay.[136] Another bay was discovered on the 18th, in which there was good anchorage, with great convenience for wooding and watering, and which they called Schapenham's bay, after the name of their vice-admiral.
[Footnote 135: This seems to be what is now called Cape St Vincent, at the W. side of the entrance into the Straits of Le Maire.--E.]
[Footnote 136: The centre of Nassau bay is in lat. 55° 30' N. long. 68° 20' W. This bay is formed between Terra del Fuego on the north, and Hermite's island south by east, the south-eastern extreme point of which is Cape Horn. This island appears to have been named after admiral Le Hermite.--E.]
On the 23d a storm arose with such violence that nineteen men belonging to the Eagle were compelled to remain on shore; and next day, when the boats were able to go for them, only two of these men were left alive, the savages having come upon them in the dark, and knocked seventeen of them on the head with their slings and wooden clubs, the poor Dutchmen being all unarmed, and not having offered the least injury or insult to the savages. Only five of the dead bodies were found on the shore, which were strangely mangled, all the rest having been carried away by the savages, as it was supposed, to eat them. After this, every boat that went ashore carried eight or ten soldiers for their security; but none of the savages ever appeared again.
The vice-admiral went on the 25th in the Greyhound to visit the coast. On his return he reported to the admiral, that he found the Terra del Fuego divided into several islands, and that it was by no means necessary to double Cape Horn in order to get into the South Sea, as they might pass out from Nassau bay to the west into the open sea, leaving Cape Horn on the south. He apprehended also, that there were several passages from Nassau bay leading into the Straits of Magellan. The greatest part of the Terra del Fuego is mountainous, but interspersed with many fine vallies and meadows, and watered by numerous streams or rivulets, descending from the hills. Between the islands there are many good roads, where large fleets may anchor in safety, and where there is every desirable convenience for taking in wood, water, and ballast. The winds, which rage here more than in any other country, and with inexpressible violence, blow constantly from the west, for which reason such ships as are bound westerly ought to avoid this coast as much as possible, keeping as far south as they can, where they are likely to meet with southerly winds to facilitate their westerly course.
The inhabitants of the Terra del Fuego are as fair as any Europeans, as was concluded by seeing a young child; but the grown-up people disguise themselves strangely, painting themselves with a red earth after many fanciful devices, some having their heads, others their arms, their legs and thighs red, and other parts of their bodies white. Many of them have one half of their bodies red, from the forehead to the feet, and the other side white. They are all strong made and well-proportioned, and generally about the same stature with Europeans. Their hair is black, which they wear long, thick, and bushy, to make them the more frightful. They have good teeth, but very thin, and as sharp as the edge of a knife. The men go entirely naked, and the women have only a piece of skin about their waists, which is very surprising, considering the severity of the climate. Their huts are made of trees, in the form of a round tent, having a hole at the top to let out the smoke. Within they are sunk two or three feet under the surface of the ground, and the earth taken from this hollow is thrown upon the outside. Their fishing-tackle is very curious, and is furnished with hooks made of stone, nearly of the same shape with ours. They are variously armed, some having bows and arrows artificially headed with stone; others long javelins or spears, headed with bone; some have great wooden clubs, some have slings, and most have stone knives, or daggers, which are very sharp. They are never seen without their arms, as they are always at war among themselves; and it would appear that the several tribes paint differently, that they may distinguish each other; for the people about the island of Torhaltens, and about Schapenham bay, were all painted black, while those about Greyhound bay were painted red.