After some trouble, the English induced some of these natives to approach them, and gave them some old clothes, intending to make them carry their casks of water to the boat; but all the signs they could make would not induce the natives to touch the barrels; instead, they stood, like statues, without motion, grinning as so many monkeys would have done, and staring one upon another!
The seamen were therefore compelled to carry the water themselves, but the natives very formally put the clothes off again, and laid them down, as if they were only to work in. They did not appear, indeed, to have any great fancy for them at first, neither did they look surprised at anything they saw. On another occasion, when the boat approached the shore, a number of them appeared, threatening the strangers with their clubs and lances. At last the captain ordered a drum to be beaten. No sooner did they hear the noise than they ran away as fast as they could, crying out, “Gurry, gurry!”
At spring-tide the ship was hauled into a sandy bay, and all the neap-tides she lay wholly aground, so that there was ample time to clean her bottom. Dampier again attempted to persuade the men to take the ship to some English factory and deliver her up; but he was threatened, should he say anything more on the subject, to be left behind. He accordingly desisted, hoping to find some better opportunity for making his escape.
From the coast of New Holland the Cygnet stood for the island of Cocoas. Here fresh water was obtained, and one of the canoes brought on board as many boobies and man-of-war birds as was sufficient for all the ship’s company. They caught also a land animal resembling a large crawfish without its great claws. Their flesh was very good, and they were so large that no man could eat two of them at a meal.
Again, at the little island of Triste, Dampier attempted to make his escape, but abandoned his intention for the present, finding it impossible to run off with the boat. Sailing on the 29th, they chased and captured a proa, with four men, belonging to Achin. She was laden with cocoa-nuts
and cocoa-nut oil. The ship was filled up with as many of these commodities as could be stowed away, when a hole was made in the bottom of the proa, and she was sunk, while her crew were detained on board.
Captain Reed did this under the belief that Dampier and others who wanted to make their escape would be afraid to go on shore, lest the natives should kill them.
Passing the north-west end of Sumatra, the pirates steered for the Nicobar Islands, to the south of the Andamans. Here the ship was again careened, in order that she might be thoroughly cleaned, and thus sail faster.
The natives were a well-looking people, of a dark colour, the men being almost naked, but the women wore a short petticoat. After the ship was again floated, Dampier, finding that he could not get off by stealth, insisted on being landed. At last the captain agreed, and, getting up his chest and bedding, he induced some of his shipmates to row him on shore. One of them gave him an axe, which he had secreted.