On
Our First Arrival At Saldanha Bay, We Set Up Our Pinnace, Which We
Launched On The 5th September, And In Six Or Eight Days After She Was
Rigged And Fit For Sea.
[Footnote 274:
Jones observes, that after passing the line, they fell in
with the trade-wind, which blows continually between S.E. and S.E. by
E. the farther one goes to the southwards, finding it still more
easterly, all the way between the line and the tropic of Capricorn. This
almost intolerable obstacle to the outward-bound India voyage, was
afterwards found easy to be avoided, by keeping a course to the
westward, near the coast of Brazil.
Jones likewise mentions, that on the 11th June, when in lat. 26 deg. S. they
overtook a carak, called the Nave Palma, bound for India; which was
afterwards lost on the coast of Sofala, within twelve leagues of
Mozambique. - E.]
The natives of the country about Saldanha bay are a very beastly people,
especially in their feeding; for I have seen them eat the guts and
garbage, dung and all. They even eat the seals which we had cast into
the river, after they had lain fourteen days, being then full of
maggots, and stinking most intolerably. We saw here several signs of
wild beasts, some so fierce, that when we found their dens, we durst
neither enter nor come near them. The natives brought down to us
ostrich eggs, some of the shells being empty, with a small hole at one
end; also feathers of the same bird, and porcupine quills, which they
bartered for our commodities, being especially desirous of iron,
esteeming old pieces of that metal far beyond gold or silver.
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