This Island Has Great Numbers Of Seals And Conies, Or Rabbits, On Which Account We Called It Conie Island.

The 8th, we came to anchor in the road or bay of Saldanha,[66] and went ashore on the 9th, finding a goodly country, inhabited by the most savage and beastly people that ever were created.

In this place we had most excellent refreshments, the like of which is not to be found among any other savage people; for we wanted neither for beef nor mutton, nor wild-fowl, all the time we lay there. This country is very full of cattle and sheep, which they keep in great flocks and herds, as we do in England; and it abounds likewise in wild beasts and birds, as wild deer, in great abundance, antelopes, baboons, foxes, hares, ostriches, cranes, pelicans, herons, geese, ducks, pheasants, partridges, and various other excellent kinds, of which we killed as many as we pleased, with our fire-arms. The country is most pleasantly watered with many wholesome springs and brooks, which have their origin in the tops of exceeding high mountains, and which, pervading the vallies, render them very fertile. It has many trees growing close-to the sea-shore, not much unlike our bay trees, but of a much harder consistence. The natives brought us more cattle and sheep than we could use during all the time we remained there, so that we carried fresh beef and mutton to sea with us. For a piece of an old iron hoop, not worth two-pence, we could purchase a large bullock; and a sheep for a small piece of iron not worth two or three good hob-nails. These natives go quite naked, having only a sheep skin on their shoulders, and a small flap of skin before them, which covers them just as much as if it were not there. While we were there, they lived on the guts and offal of the meat which we threw away, feeding in a most beastly manner, as they neither washed nor cleaned the guts, but covered them merely with hot ashes, and, before they were heated through, pulled them out, shook them a little, and eat guts, excrements, ashes and all. They live on raw flesh, and a kind of roots, which they have in great abundance.

[Footnote 66: This Bay was probably that now called Table bay, which all the early navigators seem to have denominated Saldanha, or Saldania bay. - E.]

We continued here from the 9th April, till the 3d May, by which good recreation on shore and excellent refreshment, we were all in as good health as when we first put to sea. The 7th May we were off the Cape of Good Hope, ten leagues south by estimation, and that night we passed over the shoals of cabo das Aguilhas. The 9th there arose a great storm, when we lost sight of our pinnace, being driven from her by the violence of the gale.

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