Having Concluded My Business
At This Place, I Set Sail For Saldanha Bay; Where I Bought For A Small
Quantity Of Copper, Worth Perhaps Between Three And Four Pounds, 494
Sheep, 4 Beeves, And 9 Calves.
We sailed again from that place on the
4th March, 1614; and on the day of our departure, the natives brought us
more live-stock than we knew how to dispose of; but we brought away
alive, eighty sheep, two beeves, and one calf.
The 24th of March we saw St Helena, eight or nine leagues to the W.N.W.
its latitude, by my estimation, being 16 deg. S. and its long, from the Cape
of Good Hope, 22 deg. W. At three p.m. we anchored in the road of that
island, right over-against the Chappel. While at St Helena, finding the
road from the Chappel [church valley], to where the lemon-trees grow, a
most wicked way, insomuch that it was a complete day's work to go and
come, I sent my boats to the westward, in hopes of finding a nearer and
easier way to bring down hogs and goats. In this search, my people found
a fair valley; some three or four miles to the S.W. which leads directly
to the lemon-trees, and is the largest and finest valley in the island,
after that at the Chappel, and is either the next, or the next save one,
from the valley of the Chappel. At this valley, which is some three or
four miles from that of the Chappel, and is from it the fourth valley or
swamp one way, and from the point to the westward the second, so that it
cannot be missed, it is much better and easier for getting provisions or
water, and the water is better and clearer. The road or anchorage is all
of one even ground and depth, so that it is much better riding here than
at any other part of the island; and from this place, a person may go up
to the lemon-trees and back again in three hours. We here got some
thirty hogs and pigs, and twelve or fourteen hundred lemons; but if we
had laid ourselves out for the purpose, I dare say we might have got 200
hogs, besides many goats.
Continuing our voyage home, we got sight of the Lizard point on the 4th
June, 1614, our estimated longitude from the Cape of Good Hope being
then 27 deg. 20', besides two degrees carried by the currents; so that the
difference of longitude, between the Cape and the Lizard, is 29 deg. 20', or
very nearly. Though we had then only left the Cape of Good Hope three
months before, and were only two months and nine days from St Helena,
more than half our company was now laid up by the scurvy, of which two
had died. Yet we had plenty of victuals, as beef, bread, wine, rice,
oil, vinegar, and sugar, as much as every one chose. All our men have
taken their sickness since we fell in with Flores and Corvo; since which
we have had very cold weather, especially in two great storms, one from
the N. and N.N.E. and the other at N.W. so that it seemeth the sudden
coming out of long heat into the cold is a great cause of scurvy. All
the way from the Cape of Good Hope to the Azores, I had not one man
sick.
The 15th of June, 1614, we came into the river Thames, by the blessing
of God, it being that day six months on which we departed from Bantam in
Java.
SECTION XVIII.
Observations made during the foregoing Voyage, by Mr Copland, Chaplain,
Mr Robert Boner, Master, and Mr Nicholas Whittington, Merchant.[92]
[Footnote 92: Purch. Pilgr. I. 466. On this occasion, only such notices
as illustrate the preceding voyage are extracted. - E.]
Sec.1. Notes extracted from the Journal of Mr Copland, Chaplain of the
Voyage.
The bay of Saldhana, and all about the Cape of Good Hope, is healthful,
and so fruitful that it might well be accounted a terrestrial paradise.
It agrees well with our English constitutions; for, though we had ninety
or an hundred sick when we got there, they were all as well in twenty
days as when we left England, except one. It was then June, and we had
snow on the hills, though the weather below was warmish. The country is
mixed, consisting of mountains, plains, meadows, streams, and woods
which seem as if artificially planted on purpose, they are so orderly;
and it has abundance of free-stone for building. It has also plenty of
fish and wild-fowl, as geese, ducks, and partridges, with antelopes,
deer, and other animals. The people were very loving, though at first
afraid of us, because the Dutch, who resort hither to make train-oil,
had used them unkindly, having stolen and killed their cattle; but
afterwards, and especially on our return, they were more frank and kind.
They are of middle size, well limbed, nimble and active; and are fond of
dancing, which they do in just measure, but entirely naked. Their dress
consists of a cloak of sheep or seals-skin to their middle, the hair
side inwards, with a cap of the same, and a small skin like that of a
rat hanging before their privities. Some had a sole, or kind of sandal,
tied to their feet. Their necks were adorned with greasy tripes, which
they would sometimes pull off and eat raw; and when we threw away the
guts of beasts and sheep we bought from them, they would eat them half
raw and all bloody, in a most beastly and disgusting manner. They had
bracelets about their arms of copper or ivory, and were decorated with
many ostrich feathers and shells. The women were habited like the men,
and were at first very shy; but when here on our return voyage, they
became quite familiar, even lifting their rat-skins:
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