These Three Islands Were All Low, Flat, And Almost Even With The Water,
Yet Full Of Trees Of Various Sorts,
All very green and flourishing; and
doubtless, if we had possessed a boat, we must have found something
beneficial to
Ourselves, perhaps useful to our country, as we might also
at several other islands which we afterwards passed. The inhabitants of
most of these islands were a very large and strong-boned race of men,
having long black lank hair reaching to their middles, and were all
entirely naked, not so much as covering their parts of shame; and I
certainly never saw such, a parcel of stout-limbed men together in all
my life. These islands, therefore, are abundantly peopled, though they
were utterly averse from any communication with us, perhaps from a
notion that all whites are Spaniards; and yet it is not quite clear that
even the Spaniards have ever attempted to form a settlement at any of
these islands.
We left these islands with a fresh breeze at E. steering S.W. and
continually met with weeds and grass on our way, which made us believe
we were not far from land, yet we had no ground with 100 fathoms. Early
in the morning of the 9th May, we descried the coast of New Guinea, more
than eighteen or nineteen leagues distant. We now saw the necessity of
constructing a boat, with a few old boards and such other materials as
we had, though not quite suitable for the purpose; and though neither
strong nor handsome, it proved exceeding useful in the sequel. On the
9th we had very bad weather, the wind shifting to every point of the
compass. This part of New Guinea appeared very mountainous, black, and
rocky, without harbour, bay, or road, in which we might anchor in
safety. The mountains seemed so bleak and barren, and the vallies so
deep and narrow, that at first we conceived the country to be
uninhabited; neither did we afterwards see any inhabitants or signs of
any. That same day we passed two small islands, each about a league in
length, which were very low, and well clothed with small green trees. At
the same time we saw part of the great island of Gilolo, at the distance
of eight leagues, and held our course W.S.W.[212] intending to pass
through between that island and New Guinea, into the East Indian Sea.
[Footnote 212: The only way of explaining this part of the text, is by
supposing Funnel may have mistaken the island of Waygoo for a part of
New Guinea, and even the N.W. point of that island is at least sixty
leagues from the S.W. leg or peninsula of Gilolo, to which the direction
of his course certainly points. - E.]
We had very bad weather till the 11th of May, and the night being very
dark, we missed the common passage, and found ourselves among many
small islands; and as the wind was at E. we resolved to look out for
some passage among these islands to the south.
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