Their Houses Are Only Made Of Mats, Rounded At The Top
Like An Oven, And Open On One Side, Which They Turn As The Wind
Changes, Having No Door To Keep Out The Weather.
They have left off
their former custom of stealing, but are quite ignorant of God, and seem
to have no religion.
The air and water here are both excellent, and the
country is very healthy. The country abounds in cattle, sheep,
antilopes, baboons, pheasants, partridges, larks, wild-geese, ducks, and
many other kinds of fowls. On the Penguin isle [Dassen or Robber's
island,] there is a bird called penguin, which walks upright, having no
feathers on its wings, which hang down like sleeves faced with white.
These birds cannot fly, but walk about in flocks, being a kind of
mixture, or intermediate link, between beast, bird, and fish, yet mostly
bird. The commodities here are cattle and ningin roots; and I believe
there is a rock yielding quicksilver.[163]The Table mountain is 11,853
feet high.[164] The bay is full of whales and seals, and is in lat. 33 deg.
45' S." - T.R.
[Footnote 163: Ningin, or Ginseng, is mentioned afterwards. The
quicksilver rock has not been found. - E.]
[Footnote 164: This height is probably an exaggeration, or was measured
up its slope or talus, not ascertained perpendicularly. - E.]
On the 16th of June, after a consultation, we set ashore ten of our
condemned persons to remain at the Cape. These were John Crosse, Henry
Cocket, Clerke, Brand, Booth, Hunyard, Brigs, Pets, Metcalf, and
Skilligall. These men agreed that Crosse should be their chief, and we
gave them weapons for their defence against men and wild beasts,
together with provisions and clothes. The natives at this place are
especially desirous of brass, and care not much for copper, chiefly
wishing to have pieces of a foot square. They care little for iron
hoops. We caught seven or eight hundred fishes in the river, at one haul
of our seyne. The country people brought us for sale a root called
Ningin,[165] of which we bought a handful for a small piece of copper
an inch and half long. Our men got some of this, but not so good, this
not being the season when it is ripe; for, when in full perfection, it
is as tender and sweet as anise-seeds.
[Footnote 165: A medicinal root, much prized at Japan, somewhat like a
skerrit. - Purch. Probably that named Ginseng, in high repute in
China and Japan for its fancied restorative and provocative powers, like
the mandrake of holy writ, but deservedly despised in the Materia Medica
of Europe. Its whole virtues lay in some supposed resemblance to the
human figure, founded on the childish doctrine of signatures; whence,
at one time, every thing yellow was considered specific against
jaundice, with many other and similar absurd notions. - E.]
We sailed from Saldanha on the 20th June, and on the the 21st we had
sight of land in 34 deg. 28' S. being the land to the west of cape de
Arecife, laid down 28' more northwardly than it ought in the charts of
Daniel. On the 6th July we ought to have seen the coast of Madagascar,
by most of our computations, and according to Daniel's charts, upon
Mercator's projection, which proved false by seventy leagues in distance
of longitude between the coast of Ethiopia at cape Bona Speranza and the
isle of St Lawrence, as is evident from the charts projected in plano
by Tottens. The 22d all the four ships anchored at Mohelia, where we
had water from wells dug a little above high-water mark, eight or nine
feet deep, close by the roots of trees. Doman is the chief town of
this island, where the sultan resides, to whom we gave a double-locked
piece and a sword. For very little money we were plentifully supplied
with provisions, as poultry, goats, bullocks, lemons, oranges, limes,
tamarinds, cocoa-nuts, pines, sugar-canes, and other fruits. Among the
inhabitants of this island there are Arabs, Turks, and Moors, many of
whom speak tolerable Portuguese. From them I had a curious account of
the current at this place, which they said ran alternately fifteen days
westerly, fifteen days easterly, and fifteen days not at all; and which
I partly observed to be true: For, at our first coming, the current set
westerly, and on the 28th it set easterly, and so continued during our
stay, which was six days, but we went away before trial could be
perfectly made of this report.
I learned here that the king of Juanni [Joanna or Hinzuan] was
sovereign of this island, but entrusted its government to the sultan,
who resides here. The 29th, a vessel arrived at Doman from
Gangamora, in the island of Madagascar, and I was desired by the
general to examine what were its commodities, which I found to consist
of rice, and a kind of cloth manufactured of the barks of trees, which
makes very cool garments. I enquired from the pilot, who spoke good
Portuguese, respecting Captain Rowles and the other Englishmen who were
betrayed on that island. He knew nothing of all this, but said that two
or three years before, an English boy was at Gangamora along with the
Portuguese, whom he now thought dead, but knew not how he came there.
This town of Doman contains about an hundred houses, strongly built of
stone and lime, and its inhabitants are orderly and civil. They carry
on trade with the coasts of Melinda, Magadoxa, Mombaza, Arabia, and
Madagascar, carrying slaves taken in their wars, which they sell for
nine or ten dollars each, and which are sold afterwards in Portugal for
100 dollars a-head. At Mombaza and Magadoxa, they have considerable
trade in elephants teeth and drugs; and it was therefore agreed to
advise the honourable company of this, that they might consider of
sending a pinnace yearly to make trial of this trade.
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