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.
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.
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