第60章

When they came to land, the natives in great companies stood to resist them, shaking their lances, and threatening them, and some were so daring as to wade into the sea, holding a target in one hand and a lance in the other. Our men held up to them such commodities as I had sent, and made signs of friendship, but to no purpose, for the natives waved them off. Seeing, therefore, they could not be prevailed upon to a friendly commerce, my men, being resolved to have some provision among them, fired some muskets to scare them away, which had the desired effect upon all but two or three, who stood still in a menacing posture, till the boldest dropped his target and ran away. They supposed he was shot in the arm; he and some others felt the smart of our bullets, but none were killed, our design being rather to frighten than to kill them. Our men landed, and found abundance of tame hogs running among the houses. They shot down nine, which they brought away, besides many that ran away wounded. They had but little time, for in less than an hour after they went from the ship it began to rain; wherefore they got what they could into the boats, for I had charged them to come away if it rained. By the time the boat was aboard and the hogs taken in it cleared up, and my men desired to make another trip thither before night; this was about five in the evening, and I consented, giving them orders to repair on board before night. In the close of the evening they returned accordingly, with eight hogs more, and a little live pig; and by this time the other hogs were jerked and salted. These that came last we only dressed and corned till morning, and then sent both boats ashore for more refreshments either of hogs or roots; but in the night the natives had conveyed away their provisions of all sorts. Many of them were now about the houses, and none offered to resist our boats landing, but, on the contrary, were so amicable, that one man brought ten or twelve cocoa-nuts, left them on the shore after he had shown them to our men, and went out of sight. Our people, finding nothing but nets and images, brought some of them away, which two of my men brought aboard in a small canoe, and presently after my boats came off. I ordered the boatswain to take care of the nets till we came at some place where they might be disposed of for some refreshment for the use of all the company. The images I took into my own custody.

In the afternoon I sent the canoe to the place from whence she had been brought, and in her two axes, two hatchets (one of them helved), six knives, six looking-glasses, a large bunch of beads, and four glass bottles. Our men drew the canoe ashore, placed the things to the best advantage in her, and came off in the pinnace which I sent to guard them; and now, being well-stocked with wood and all my water-casks full, I resolved to sail the next morning.

All the time of our stay here we had very fair weather, only sometimes in the afternoon we had a shower of rain, which lasted not above an hour at most; also some thunder and lightning, with very little wind; we had sea and land breezes, the former between the south-south-east, and the latter from north-east to north-west.

This place I named Port Montague in honour of my noble patron: it lies in the latitude of 6 degrees 10 minutes south, and meridian distance from Cape St. George 151 miles west. The country hereabouts is mountainous and woody, full of rich valleys and pleasant fresh-water brooks. The mould in the valleys is deep and yellowish, that on the sides of the hill of a very brown colour, and not very deep, but rocky underneath, yet excellent planting land.

The trees in general are neither very straight, thick, nor tall, yet appear green and pleasant enough; some of them bore flowers, some berries, and others big fruits, but all unknown to any of us; cocoa-nut trees thrive very well here, as well on the bays by the sea-side, as more remote among the plantations; the nuts are of an indifferent size, the milk and kernel very thick and pleasant. Here is ginger, yams, and other very good roots for the pot, that our men saw and tasted; what other fruits or roots the country affords I know not. Here are hogs and dogs; other land animals we saw none.

The fowls we saw and knew were pigeons, parrots, cockatoos, and crows like those in England; a sort of birds about the bigness of a blackbird, and smaller birds many. The sea and rivers have plenty of fish; we saw abundance, though we caught but few, and these were cavallies, yellow-tails, and whip-rays.

We departed from hence on the 22nd of March, and on the 24th, in the evening, we saw some high land bearing north-west half-west, to the west of which we could see no land, though there appeared something like land bearing west a little southerly, but not being sure of it, I steered west-north-west all night, and kept going on with an easy sail, intending to coast along the shore at a distance. At ten o'clock I saw a great fire bearing north-west-by-west, blazing up in a pillar, sometimes very high for three or four minutes, then falling quite down for an equal space of time, sometimes hardly visible, till it blazed up again. I had laid me down, having been indisposed these three days; but upon a sight of this, my chief mate called me; I got up and viewed it for about half an hour, and knew it to be a burning hill by its intervals: I charged them to look well out, having bright moonlight. In the morning I found that the fire we had seen the night before was a burning island, and steered for it. We saw many other islands, one large high island, and another smaller but pretty high. I stood near the volcano, and many small low islands, with some shoals.