The 7th August, Some Negroes Of A Superior Appearance Came Aboard In My
Boat, For Whom, As For All Others, We Had To Leave One Of Our Men In
Hostage For Every Two Of Them.
These men made signs that I should send
some men up the country, and they would stay as hostages.
I accordingly
sent Edward Bradbury, and my servant, William Cotterell, with a present
to the captain, or chief, consisting of one coarse shirt, three feet of
a bar of iron, a few glass beads, and two knives. They returned towards
night, and brought me from the captain, one small gold ear-ring, worth
some eight or nine shillings; and as it was late, the hostages remained
all night on board without any one in pawn for them. I sent my boat, and
brought off five tons of water, very good, and easily come by.
I went ashore on the 11th, when the people came to us, accompanied by
their women, yet feared we might carry them away. We got plenty of
lemons very cheap, as they gave us 200 for a penny knife. The 18th I
bought an elephant's tooth of 63 pounds weight, for five yards of blue
calico, and seven or eight pounds of bar iron. The 15th, in an hour and
a half, we took six thousand excellent small fish, called cavallos.
That afternoon we bought two or three thousand lemons at the village. It
rained so much at this place, that we esteemed it a dry day when we had
three hours of fair weather. The 16th I allowed our weekly workers to go
on shore with me for recreation. In our walk we saw not above two or
three acres sown with rice, the surface of the ground being mostly a
hard rock. The 16th and 17th were quite fair, and on the latter I
caused a quantity of lemon water to be made.
The 20th, John Rogers returned and brought me a present of a piece of
gold in form of a half-moon, worth five or six shillings. He reported
the people to be peaceable, the chief without state, the landing to be
two leagues up the river, and the chief's village eight miles from the
landing. The 22d I went on shore, and made six or seven barricos full
of lemon juice; having opened a firkin of knives belonging to the
company, wherewith to buy limes. The afternoon of the 7th September we
went all on shore, to try if we could shoot an elephant; when we shot
seven or eight bullets into him, and made him bleed exceedingly, as
appeared by his track; but night coming on, we had to go on board
without effecting our purpose.
The best road and watering-place is the fourth bay to the east of Cape
Sierra Leona. The tide where we rode flowed W.S.W. and the highest water
upon a spring tide was at the least 12 feet.
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