The City Of Mindanao Is A Mile In Length, But Not Very
Broad, Stretching Along The Right Bank Of The River As You Go Up, Though
There Are Some Houses Also On The Opposite Side.
The inhabitants
frequently came aboard of our ship, and invited our men to their
houses, where they were kindly entertained after their manner with
tobacco and betel, and such of them as had money, or other articles of
value, did not want their pagalies, or female friends.
Captain Swan
was entertained daily by Rajah Laut, and those of our men who had no
money had boiled rice, with scraps of fowl and buffalo beef given them.
Yet, after all these outward shews of friendship, we soon after began to
discover that Rajah Laut had sinister intentions. The sheathing on our
ship's bottom being much eaten by worms, we began in November to remove
the old sheathing, to see whether the main plank remained sound; on
seeing which, Rajah Laut shook his head, saying he had never seen a ship
with two bottoms. Besides, he did not perform his promise of providing
us with beef, pretending he could not get any; and he borrowed a
considerable sum in gold from Captain Swan, which he never repaid.
These circumstances at length induced most of our men to think of
leaving Mindanao, especially those who had not much money; and as our
ship was new sheathed and tallowed on the 10th December, they began to
urge our commander to depart in continuation of our voyage.
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