The Third Day After Our Arrival In Saldanha Bay, The Natives Brought
Down Beeves And Sheep, Which We Bought For Pieces Of Old Iron Hoops; As
Two Pieces Of Eight Inches Each For An Ox, And One Piece For A Sheep,
With Which The Natives Seemed Perfectly Satisfied.
In ten or twelve
days, we bought 1000 sheep and 42 oxen, and might have had more if we
would.
After this they discontinued bringing any more cattle, but the
people often came down to us afterwards; and when we made signs for more
sheep, they would point to those we had already, which the general kept
grazing on the hills near our tents; which, as we judged, was the reason
why they did not bring us more, as they thought we meant to inhabit
there. But, God be thanked, we were now well provided, and could very
well pass without farther purchases. The oxen were as large as ours in
England, and very fat; and the sheep were many of them bigger than ours,
of excellent flesh, sweet and fat, and to our liking much better than
our English mutton, but having coarse hairy wool.
The people of this place are all of a tawny colour, of reasonable
stature, swift of foot, and much given to pick and steal. Their language
is entirely uttered through their throats, and they cluck with their
tongues in so strange a manner, that, in seven weeks which we remained
here, the sharpest wit among us could not learn one word of their
language, yet the natives soon understood every sigh we made them. While
we staid at this bay, we had such royal refreshing that all our men
recovered their health and strength, except four or five. Including
these, and before we came in, we lost out of all our ships 105 men; yet,
on leaving this bay,[103] we reckoned ourselves stronger manned than
when we left England, our men were now so well inured to the southern
climates and to the sea.
[Footnote 103: In a marginal note, Purchas gives the lat. of Saldanha
bay as 34 deg. S. The place then called Saldanha bay was certainly Table
bay, the entrance to which is in 33 deg. 50' S. So that Purchas is here
sufficiently, accurate. - E.]
Sec. 2. Continuation of the Voyage, from Saldanha Bay to the Nicobar and
Sombrero Islands.
The general ordered all our tents to be taken down on the 24th of
October, and all our men to repair on board their respective ships,
having laid in an ample supply of wood and water. We put to sea the 29th
of that month, passing a small island in the mouth of the bay, which is
so full of seals and penguins, that if no better refreshment could have
been procured, we might very well have refreshed here. Over the bay of
Saldanha there stands a very high and flat hill, called the Table; no
other harbour on all this coast having so plain a mark to find it by, as
it can be easily seen seventeen or eighteen leagues out at sea. In the
morning of Sunday the 1st November, we doubled the Cape of Good Hope in
a heavy gale at W.N.W.
On the 26th November we fell in with the head-land of the island of St
Lawrence or Madagascar, somewhat to the eastward of cape St Sebastian,
and at five mile from the shore we had 20 fathoms; the variation of the
compass being 16 deg., a little more or less. In an east and west course,
the variation of the compass serves materially, and especially in this
voyage.[104] From the 26th November till the 15th December we plied to
the eastwards, as nearly as we could, always striving to get to the
island of Cisne, called Diego Rodriguez in some charts; but ever from
our leaving Madagascar, we found the wind at E. or E.S.E. or E.N.E. so
that we could not accomplish it, and we could not continue to strive
long in hopes of the wind changing, as our men began again to fall sick
of the scurvy. The captain of our vice-admiral, John Middleton of the
Hector, now proposed to our general to bear away for the bay of
Antongit, on the east coast of Madagascar, where we might refresh our
men with oranges and lemons, so as to get rid again of this cruel
disease; which counsel was approved by him and the whole company.
[Footnote 104: At this period, and for long afterwards, mariners
estimated their longitudes by dead reckonings, or by the observed
variations of the compass; both very uncertain guides. - E.]
We had sight of the southernmost part of the island of St Mary [in lat.
16 deg. 48' S. long. 50 deg. 17' E.] and anchored next day between that island
and the main of Madagascar. We immediately sent our boats to St Mary,
where we procured some store of lemons and oranges, being very precious
for our sick men to purge them of the scurvy. While riding here, a great
storm arose, which drove three of our ships from their anchors; but
within sixteen hours the storm ceased, and our ships returned and
recovered their anchors. The general thought it improper to remain here
any longer, on account of the uncertainty of the weather, the danger of
riding here, and because we were able to procure so little refreshment
at this island; having got, besides a few lemons and oranges, a very
little goats milk, and a small quantity of rice: But as our men were
sick, and the easterly winds still prevailed, he gave orders to sail for
Antongil.
The isle of St Mary is high land and full of wood. The natives are tall
handsome men, of black colour and frizzled hair, which they stroke up at
their foreheads as our women do in England, so that it stands three
inches upright.
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