The
Harbour Is Large; And, Besides The Two Great Acapulco Ships, Contains
Abundance Of Small Vessels Belonging To The Place, Besides Usually
Thirty Or Forty Stout Chinese Junks; And The Portuguese Also Have
Liberty To Trade To This Place.
Many Chinese merchants also reside
constantly in this city.
A league from the city, nearer the sea, there
is a strong fortress to defend the harbour, where the great ships lie at
anchor. Most of this account I received from Mr Coppinger, our surgeon,
who had formerly been thither, sailing from the Coromandel coast.
The time of the year being now too far spent for our purpose, we
resolved to sail for Pulo Condore, a knot of small islands on the coast
of Cambodia, and to return in May to lie in wait for the Acapulco ship.
We accordingly made sail from the island of Luconia on the 26th of
February; and coming into the lat. of 14 deg. N. we steered our course W.
for Pulo Condore,[197] and in our way got sight of the south end of the
Pracel shoals, being three small isles, or large spots of sand, just
above water, only a mile from us. We came in sight of Pulo Condore on
the 13th March, and anchored next day on the north side of that island,
in ten fathoms, on clean hard sand, two miles from the shore.
[Footnote 197: This course ought rather to have been called W.S.W. as
Pulo Condore is lat. 8 deg. 40' N.]
Pulo Condore is the chief of a group of isles, and the only one of them
that is inhabited, in lat. 8 deg. 44' N. long. 106 deg. 5' E. forty leagues S.
by E. from the mouth of the river of Cambodia, otherwise called the
Japanese river. Two of these isles are tolerably high and large, and
the rest very small. The principal isle, off which we anchored, is five
leagues long from E. to W. and three leagues broad, but in some places
not a mile. The other large isle is three miles long from N. to S. and
between these, at the west end of the largest, there is a convenient
harbour, the entrance being on the north, where the two isles are a mile
asunder. On the largest isle there grows a tall tree, three or four feet
diameter, which the inhabitants cut horizontally half through, a foot
from the ground, after which they cut out the upper part in a slope,
till it meets the transverse cut, whence a liquor distils into a hollow
made in the semicircular shelf, or stump, which, after being boiled,
becomes good tar, and if boiled still more, becomes perfect pitch, both
of these answering well for marine use. Such a tree produces two quarts
of this juice daily for a month, after which it dries up, but recovers
again.
There are mango trees in this island, the fruit of which the
inhabitants pickle with salt, vinegar, and a little garlic, while green.
On straight trees of a foot diameter, grapes, both red and white, and of
a pleasant taste, much like those of Europe, grow in clusters about the
body of the tree, like the cocoas. This isle also abounds in wild
nutmeg-trees, which resemble our walnut-trees, and the fruit grows among
the boughs, in the same manner as walnuts. This fruit resembles the true
nutmeg, but smaller, and has neither smell nor taste. Besides hogs,
guanas, and lizards, these islands have various birds, as parrots,
parakeets, turtle-doves, and wild poultry. The sea affords limpits,
muscles, and tortoises. These isles have many brooks of fresh water
running into the sea for ten months of the year; and they are very
conveniently situated for trade with Japan, China, Manilla, Tonquin,
Cochin-china, and other places.
The inhabitants are originally from Cochin-china, being of a middle
stature and well shaped, but of much darker colour than the natives of
Mindanao, having lank black hair, small black eyes, and small noses, yet
tolerably high, with small mouths, thin lips, and white teeth. They are
civil, but very poor, their only employment being to collect tar, and to
prepare a little oil from tortoises, both of which they export to
Cochin-china. They offer their women to strangers for a small matter; a
custom universal in Pegu, Siam, Cochin-China, Cambadia, Tonquin, and
India, as also on the coast of Guinea. They are pagans, worshipping
chiefly the elephant and the horse, besides images of birds and fishes,
but I saw none resembling the human shape.
Having careened our ship, and laid in a supply of fresh water, we sailed
from Pulo Condore on the 21st of April, steering W. by S. for the bay of
Siam, and on the 23d came to the isle of Ubi, off the S.W. cape of
Cambadia, forty leagues W. of Condore. This isle is seven or eight
leagues in circuit, and is higher land than any of the Condore isles. It
has good water on the north side, where there is also good anchorage,
but the best anchorage is on the W. side, opposite a small bay. On the
24th we entered the bay of Siam, which is very deep, and went among the
islands at the bottom of the bay, in one of which we found a small
village inhabited by fishermen, but no fish, so we turned back, and did
not return to the isle of Ubi till the 13th, and were detained there
by storms till the 21st, when we sailed for Condore, where we anchored
on the 24th. Here five or six of our men, going on board a Malay
vessel, were stabbed by the crew. Having provided our ship with wood and
water, we sailed from Condore on the 4th June, intending to proceed for
Manilla; but, by contrary winds, were forced to steer for Pratas, a
small low island inclosed with rocks, in lat.
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