A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume X - By Robert Kerr


















































































































 -  Nicholas Peterson, the captain of one of
these prizes, acquainted Van Noort that he had been informed by a negro - Page 101
A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume X - By Robert Kerr - Page 101 of 431 - First - Home

Enter page number    Previous Next

Number of Words to Display Per Page: 250 500 1000

Nicholas Peterson, The Captain Of One Of These Prizes, Acquainted Van Noort That He Had Been Informed By A Negro

Of a great quantity of gold having been on board the ship, as he believed to the amount of three

Tons, having helped to carry a great part of it on board. On this information the admiral closely examined the Spanish pilot, who at first denied all knowledge of any gold; but another negro having corroborated the information, with some farther circumstances, the pilot at last owned that they had on board fifty-two chests, each containing four arobas of gold, and besides these 500 bars of the same metal, weighing from eight to ten and twelve pounds each; all of which, together with what private stock belonged to any of the company, the captain had ordered to be thrown overboard in the night, when first chased, amounting in the whole to about 10,200 pounds weight of gold; and, from its fineness, worth about two million pieces of eight, or Spanish silver dollars. Upon this the admiral ordered the ship and all the prisoners to be searched, but there was only found a single pound of gold dust, tied up in a rag, in the breeches pocket of the Spanish pilot. The prisoners owned that all this gold was brought from the island of St Mary, from mines discovered only three years before; and that there were not more than three or four Spaniards on that island, and about 200 Indians, only armed with bows and arrows.

[Footnote 77: Perhaps Huasco in lat. 28 deg. 27' S. or it may possibly have been Guacho, in 25 deg. 50' S. - E.]

The 5th September they came in sight of the Ladrones, and came on the 16th to Guam, one of these an island of about twenty Dutch miles in extent, and yielding fish, cocoa-nuts, bananas, and sugar canes, all of which the natives brought to the ships in a great number of canoes. Sometimes they met 200 of these canoes at one time, with four or five men in each, bawling out hiero, hiero, meaning iron; and often in their eagerness they run their canoes against the ships, overturning them and losing all their commodities. These islanders were a sly subtle people, and honest with good looking after; for otherwise, they would sell a basket of cocoa-nut shells covered over with a small quantity of rice, as if full of rice. They would also snatch a sword from its scabbard, and plunge instantly into the water, where they dived like so many ducks; and the women were as roguish as the men, stealing as impudently, and diving as expertly to carry off their prizes.

The 17th of September they sailed for the Philippines; and on the 20th they met with ice, though then only in the latitude of 3 deg. N.[78] On the 16th October they came to Bayla bay, in a very fertile land, at which place they procured abundance of all kinds of necessaries for their ships, by pretending to be Spaniards.

Enter page number   Previous Next
Page 101 of 431
Words from 52259 to 52775 of 224764


Previous 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 Next

More links: First 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300
 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400
 410 420 430 Last

Display Words Per Page: 250 500 1000

 
Africa (29)
Asia (27)
Europe (59)
North America (58)
Oceania (24)
South America (8)
 

List of Travel Books RSS Feeds

Africa Travel Books RSS Feed

Asia Travel Books RSS Feed

Europe Travel Books RSS Feed

North America Travel Books RSS Feed

Oceania Travel Books RSS Feed

South America Travel Books RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Travel Books Online