But The Dutch
Did Them No Other Injury, Except Taking Away Four Boys And Two Girls,
Whom They Carried On Ship Board.
[Footnote 72:
These must necessarily be Dutch miles, 15 to the degree,
each equal to nearly 4.66 English miles. By the mouth of the straits in
the text, must be understood what is called the Narrows of the
Hope. - E.]
From one of these boys, after he had learnt the Dutch language, they had
the following intelligence. The larger of the two islands was named
Castemme by the natives, and the tribe inhabiting it Enoo. The
smaller island was called Talche. Both were frequented by great
numbers of penguins, the flesh of which served the natives as food, and
their skins for cloathing. Their only habitations were caves. The
neighbouring continent abounded in ostriches, which they also used as
food. The natives of these dreary regions were distinguished into
tribes, each having their respective residences. The Kemenetes dwelt
in Kaesay; the Kennekin in Karamay; the Karaiks in Morina: All
these are of the ordinary size, but broad-breasted, and painted all
over; the men tying up their pudenda in a string, and the women covering
their parts of shame with the skins of a penguin; the men wearing their
hair long, while that of the women was kept very short; and both sexes
going naked, except cloaks made of penguin skins, reaching only to the
waist. There was also a fourth tribe, called Tirimenen, dwelling in
Coin, who were of a gigantic stature, being ten or twelve feet
high,[73] and continually at war with the other tribes.
[Footnote 73: This absurdity might be pardoned in the ignorant savage
boy, who knew neither numerals nor measures; but in the grave reporters
it is truly ridiculous, and yet the lie has been renewed almost down to
the close of the eighteenth century. - E.]
The 28th November, the navigators went over to the continent, or north
side of the straits, seeing some whales at a distance, and observed a
pleasant river, about which were some beautiful trees with many parrots.
Owing to this fine prospect, they called the mouth of this river Summer
Bay. The 29th they made sail for Port Famine, where the land trends
so far to the south, that the main land of Patagonia and the islands of
Terra del Fuego seemed, when seen afar off, to join together. They found
here no remains of the late city of King Philip, except a heap of
stones. The straits are here four miles wide, having hills of vast
height on both sides, perpetually covered with snow. At Port Famine they
cut down wood to build a boat, and found the bark of the trees to be hot
and biting like pepper.[74] Not finding good water at this place, and
indeed doubting if it were Port Famine, they proceeded onwards, and
found a good river two miles farther west on the 1st December. Next day
they doubled Cape Froward, with some danger, on account of bad anchorage
and contrary winds.
[Footnote 74: The Wintera aromatica, the bark of which is called
Winter's bark, said to have been first discovered by Captain Winter in
1567, on the coast of Terra Magellanica. The sailors employed this bark
as a spice, and found it salutary in the scurvy. - E.]
Passing four miles beyond this cape, they anchored in a large bay, where
was a plant resembling sneezwort, which they found serviceable in the
scurvy; also another plant, which rendered those who eat of it
distracted for a time. They here fell in with two ships belonging to the
fleet under Verhagen, which had been driven back out of the South Sea,
one of which was commanded by Sebaldt de Weert, who told them he had
been five months in the straits, and had only thirty-eight remaining
out of 110 men, and not being able to bear up against the storms in the
South Sea, had been forced to put in here, while the rest of the fleet
under Verhagen held on their course.[75] These ships wished to have
joined the expedition under Van Noort, but were forced to remain in the
straits for want of provisions, which the others could not spare. They
afterwards got back to Holland on the 13th July, 1600.
[Footnote 75: The voyage of Verhagen, or so much of it rather as relates
to the adventures of Sebaldt de Weert, follows the present voyage of Van
Noort in the Collection by Harris, vol. I. pp. 37-44; and is, therefore,
retained in the same situation on the present occasion. - E.]
Van Noort and his ships left this bay on the 2d January, 1600, directing
their course for Maurice bay, which they found to extend far to the
eastwards, and to receive several rivers, the mouths of which were
filled with vast quantities of ice, which seemed never to melt. It was
now near midsummer of this southern clime, and the ice was so thick that
they could not find its bottom with a line of ten fathoms. The land here
seemed a congeries of broken islands, yet appearing like one continued
mass, owing to the height of the mountains. They were here much
distressed by hunger and continual rains, and two of their men were
slain by the savages, while gathering muscles, which formed their chief
subsistence. After weathering many storms in Meniste bay, and having
several encounters with the savages, they set sail on the 17th, and were
driven into Penguin bay, or Goose bay, three miles from Meniste bay, and
receiving its name from the vast multitude of penguins found there. At
this place, James Claas van Ulpenda, the vice-admiral, was arraigned
before a council of war, for various breaches of the articles sworn to
before proceeding on the voyage. Having a fair trial, and sufficient
time allowed him for his defence, he was condemned to be turned ashore
in the straits, with a small supply of provisions, and allowed to shift
for himself among the wild beasts and more savage inhabitants, which
sentence was accordingly executed, so that he doubtless soon fell a prey
either to hunger or the natives, who are implacable enemies to all
strangers.
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