The Women Have A Short Petticoat Of Coarse Calico, Reaching A
Little Below The Knees, And Both Sexes Wear Ear-Rings Of A Yellow Metal
Dug From Their Mountains, Having The Weight And Colour Of Gold, But
Somewhat Paler.
Whether it be in reality gold or not, I cannot say, but
it looked of a fine colour at first, which afterwards faded, which made
us suspect it, and we therefore bought very little.
We observed that the
natives smeared it with a red earth, and then made it red-hot in a quick
fire, which restored its former colour.
The houses of the natives are small, and hardly five feet high,
collected into villages on the sides of rocky hills, and built in three
or four rows, one above the other. These rocky precipices are framed by
nature into different ledges, or deep steps of stairs as it were, on
each of which they build a row of houses, ascending from one row to
another by means of ladders in the middle of each row, and when these
are removed they are inaccessible. They live mostly by fishing, and are
very expert in building boats, much like our Deal yawls. They have also
larger vessels, rowed by twelve or fourteen oars, two men to each bank.
They never kill any goats themselves, but feed on the guts and skins,
which last they broil after singing off the hair.[199] They also make a
dish of locusts, which come at certain seasons to devour their potatoes;
on which occasions they catch these insects in nets, and broil or bake
them in earthen pans, when they are tolerable eating. Their ordinary
drink is water; but they make also a kind of liquor of the juice of
sugar-canes, boiled up with black-berries, allowed afterwards to ferment
four or five days in jars. It then settles and becomes clear, when it
affords a strong and pleasant liquor, which they call bashee,
resembling our English beer both in taste and colour. I can give no
account of their language, as it has no affinity either to Chinese or
Malay. Their weapons are lances headed with iron, and they wear a kind
of armour of buffalo-hide without sleeves, reaching below their knees,
where it is three feet wide, and as stiff as a board, but close at the
shoulders.
[Footnote 199: This is rather inexplicable, as we cannot conceive how
they got the guts and skins without killing the goats. - E.]
I could not perceive that they had any worship, neither saw I any idols
among them. They seemed to have no government or precedency, except that
the children were very respectful to their parents. They seem, however,
to be regulated by some ancient customs, instead of laws, as we saw a
young lad buried alive, which we supposed was for being guilty of theft.
The men have each only one wife, and she and her children were very
obedient to the head of the family. The boys are brought up to fishing
along with their fathers; and the girls work along with their mothers in
the plantations in the vallies, where each family plants a piece of
ground proportional to their numbers. They are a civil quiet people, not
only among themselves, but in their intercourse with strangers; for all
the time we were here, though they came frequently aboard, exchanging
their yellow metal, goats, and fruits, for iron, we never saw them
differ either among themselves or with our men, though occasions of the
latter were not wanting. They have no coins, neither any weights or
scales, but give their pieces of yellow metal by guess. During our stay
here, we provided ourselves with seventy or eighty fat hogs, and great
plenty of potatoes, for our intended voyage to Manilla.
On the 25th September, we were forced out to sea by a violent storm,
which lasted till the 29th, when we made the best of our way back to the
Bashees, which we reached on the 1st October. This last storm so
disheartened our men, that they resolved to give up the design of
cruising before Manilla; and, by the persuasions of Captain Read, who
now commanded, and Captain Teat, our master, it was determined to sail
for Cape Comorin, and thence into the Red Sea. As the eastern monsoon
was at hand, our nearest and best way had been to pass through the
Straits of Malacca; but Teat persuaded the men to go round by the east
side of the Philippines, and thence, keeping south of the Spice islands,
to pass into the Indian ocean by the south of Timor.
We sailed from the Bashees on the 3d October, by the east of the
Philippines, and on the 15th, being to the south of Luconia, directed
our course west for Mindanao. On the 16th we anchored between two small
isles, in lat. 5 deg. 10' N. four leagues from the island of Mindanao. While
here, we learnt from a young prince of one of the isles, that Captain
Swan and some of his men were still at Mindanao, and in great esteem for
their services against the Alfoores: but I was since informed, that he
and his surgeon, when going on board a Dutch ship in the road, were
overset by the natives and drowned, by order of rajah Laut, as we
supposed, who had seized all his gold.
We sailed on the 2d November for Celebes, and anchored at its N.E. end
on the 9th. The 30th, while steering between two shoals, in lat. 3 deg. S.
ten leagues from Celebes, we saw three waterspouts towards evening. A
waterspout is a piece of a cloud hanging down in a sloping direction,
sometimes bending like a bow, but never perpendicular. Opposite to its
extremity the sea begins to foam, and the water is then seen gently
moving round in a circle, increasing to a rapid whirling motion, rising
upwards, an hundred paces in circumference at the bottom, but lessening
gradually upwards to the size of a spout, through which the sea-water
appears to be conveyed into the cloud, as is manifest by its blackness
and increase of bulk.
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