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.
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