He Presently Met With Some Of The Natives, To Whom He Gave
Various Trifles, As Knives, Pieces Of Old Iron, And The Like; Making
Signs For Them To Bring Him Down Sheep And Oxen.
For he spoke to them in
the cattle's language, which was not changed at the confusion of Babel;
using
Mouth for oxen, and baa for sheep, imitating their cries;
which language the people understood very well without any interpreter.
Having sent the natives away, well contented with the kind usage and
presents he had given them, orders were given for so many men from every
ship to bring sails ashore, to make tents for the sick; and also to
throw up fortifications for defence, lest by any chance the natives
might take offence and offer violence. He at the same time prescribed
regulations for buying and selling with the natives; directing, when
they should come down with cattle, that only five or six men selected
for the purpose should go to deal with them, and that the rest, which
should never be under thirty muskets and pikes, should keep at the
distance of at least eight or ten score yards, always drawn up in order
and readiness, with their muskets in the rests, whatever might befal.
This order was so strictly enforced, that no man was permitted to go
forward to speak with the natives, except with special leave. I
attribute our continuing in such amity and friendship with the natives
to these precautions, for the Hollanders had lately five or six of their
men slain by the treachery of these natives.
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