The
Oxen Were Large And Well-Fleshed, But Not Fat; And We Bought An Ox For
Two Knives, And A Stirk, Or Young Beast, For One Knife.
The sheep are
very large, and excellent mutton, having hair instead of wool, and great
tails like those of Syria.
We gave a knife for a sheep, and even got
some for less value. We saw various wild beasts, as antilopes, red and
fallow deer, and other large beasts, which we knew not, with a great
number of overgrown monkies or baboons. Mr Lancaster killed an antilope
as large as a young colt.
[Footnote 12: This negro must, of course, have been a Hotentot. - E.]
Holding a consultation in respect to the prosecution of our, voyage, it
was thought best to proceed rather with two ships well manned, than with
two weakly manned, having only 198 men in sound health, of whom 100 went
in the Penelope with our admiral, and 98 in the Edward, with the
worshipful Captain Lancaster. We left behind 50 men in the Royal
Merchant, Captain Abraham Kendal, of whom a good many were well
recovered, thinking proper, for many reasons, to send home that ship.
The disease that consumed our men was the scurvy. Our soldiers, who had
not been used to the sea, held out best, while our mariners dropt away,
which, in my judgment, proceeded from their evil diet at home.
Six days after sending home the Royal Merchant from Saldanha bay, our
admiral, Captain Raymond, in the Penelope, and Captain James Lancaster
in the Edward Bonadventure, set forward to double the Cape of Good Hope,
which they now did very readily.
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