This Great Island Is Plentifully Stored With Provisions Of All Kinds,
And Many Rich Commodities, As Diamonds, Pepper, Camphor, &C. And Several
Kinds Of Fine Woods, As Specklewood And Ebony.
Cloves also were there to
be had at a reasonable price, being brought there from the neighbouring
islands by stealth.
The animals of Borneo, as reported by Cowley, are
elephants, tigers, panthers, leopards, antelopes, and wild swine. The
king of Borneo being in league with the Spanish governor of the
Philippines, the English passed themselves here as Spaniards, and were
amply supplied by the natives during their stay with fish, oranges,
lemons, mangoes, plantains, and pine-apples.
The Nicholas sailed from this place in December, 1685, proceeding to a
chain of islands in lat. 4 deg. N. called the Naturah islands,[159] whence
they went to Timor, where the crew became exceedingly mutinous; on which
Captain Cowley and others resolved to quit the Nicholas, in order to
endeavour to get a passage home from Batavia. Accordingly, Cowley and
one Mr Hill, with eighteen more of the men, purchased a large boat, in
which they meant to have gone to Batavia, but, owing to contrary winds,
were obliged to put in at Cheribon, another factory belonging to the
Dutch in Java, where they found they had lost a day in their reckoning
during their voyage by the west. They here learnt the death of Charles
II. and that the Dutch had driven the English from Bantam, which was
then the second place of trade we possessed in India.
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