Being now sufficiently convinced of our mistaken notion of the riches of
this coast, founded on an erroneous idea that the commerce of this
country was carried on by sea, whereas it is entirely conducted by land
on mules, we now resolved to try our fortune in the East Indies.
With
this view we sailed from Cape Corientes on the 31st March, and next
noon, being thirty leagues from the cape, clear of the land-winds, we
had the wind at E.N.E. in which direction it continued till we were
within forty leagues of Guam. In all this long passage across the
Pacific, nearly in the lat. of 13 deg. N. we saw neither fish nor fowl
except once, when by my reckoning we were 5975 miles west from Cape
Corientes in Mexico, and then we saw a vast number of boobies,
supposed to come from some rocks not far off, which are laid down in
some hydrographical charts, but we saw them not.
May 20th, at four p.m. being in lat. 12 deg. 55' N. and steering W. we
discovered, to our great joy, the island of Guam, eight leagues off,
having now only three-days provisions left. Guam is one of the
Ladrones, in lat. 13 deg. 15' N. and long. 216 deg. 50' W. consequently its
meridional distance from Cape Corientes on the coast of Mexico is 111 deg.
14', or about 7730 English miles. It is twelve leagues long by four
broad, extending north and south, and is defended by a small fort
mounted by six guns, and a garrison of thirty men with a Spanish
governor, for the convenience of the Manilla ships, which touch here for
refreshments on their voyage from Acapulco to Manilla. The soil is
tolerably fertile, producing rice, pine-apples, water and musk melons,
oranges, limes, cocoa-nuts, and bread-fruit. This last grows on a tree
as big as our apple-trees, with dark green leaves. The fruit is round
and as large as a good penny-loaf,[191] growing on the boughs like
apples. When ripe it turns yellow, with a soft and sweet pulp; but the
natives pull it green, and bake it in an oven till the rind grows black.
They scrape off the rind, and the inside is soft and white, like the
crumb of new-baked bread, having neither seed nor stone; but it grows
harsh if kept twenty-four hours. As this fruit is in season for eight
months in the year, the natives use no other bread in all that time,
and they told us there was plenty of it in all the other Ladrone
islands.
[Footnote 191: This vague description may now safely be changed to the
size of a three-penny, or even four-penny loaf - E.]
On the 31st May we came to anchor near the middle of the west side of
this isle, a mile from shore, as there is no anchoring on its east side
on account of the trade-winds, which force the waves with great violence
against that side. The natives are of a copper-colour, strong-limbed,
with long black hair, small eyes, high noses, thick lips, white teeth,
and stern countenances, yet were very affable to us. They are very
ingenious in building a certain kind of boats, called proas, used all
over the East Indies. These are about twenty-six or twenty-eight feet
long, and five or six feet high from the keel, which is made of the
trunk of a tree like a canoe, sharp at both ends. They manage these
boats with a paddle instead of a rudder, and use a square sail, and they
sail with incredible swiftness, twenty or even twenty-four miles in an
hoar. One side of these boats is quite flat and upright like a wall from
end to end, but the other side is rounded and full-bellied like other
vessels. Along this side, parallel with the boat, at the distance of six
or seven feet, a log of light wood, a foot and a half wide, and sharp at
both ends, is fastened by means of two bamboos eight or ten feet long,
projecting from each end of the main boat, and this log prevents the
boat from oversetting. The English call this an out-lier, or out-rigger,
and the Dutch Oytlager. The air of this island is accounted
exceedingly healthy, except in the wet season between June and October.
The Indians inhabit small villages on the west side of this island near
the shore, and have priests among them to instruct them in the Christian
religion. By means of a civil letter from Captain Swan to the Spanish
governor, accompanied by some presents, we obtained a good supply of
hogs, cocoa-nuts, rice, biscuits, and other refreshments, together with
fifty pounds of Manilla tobacco.
Learning from one of the friars that the island of Mindanao, inhabited
by Mahometans, abounded in provisions, we set sail from Guam on the 2d
June with a strong E. wind, and arrived on the 21st at the Isle of St
John, one of the Philippines. These are a range of large islands
reaching from about the latitude of 5 deg. to about 19 deg. N. and from long.
120 deg. to 126 deg. 30' E. The principal island of the group is Luzon, or
Luconia, in which Magellan was slain by a poisoned arrow, and which is
now entirely subject to the Spaniards. Their capital city of Manilla is
in this island, being a large town and sea-port, seated at the
south-west end, opposite to the island of Mindora, and is a place of
great strength and much trade, especially occasioned by the Acapulco
ships, which procure here vast quantities of India commodities, brought
hither by the Chinese and Portuguese, and sometimes also by stealth by
the English from fort St George or Madras; for the Spaniards allow of no
regular trade here to the English and Dutch, lest they should discover
their weakness, and the riches of these islands, which abound in gold.
To the south of Luzon there are twelve or fourteen large islands,
besides a great number of small isles, all inhabited by, or subject to,
the Spaniards.
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