The Moorish Inhabitants Were Willing
To Come On Board To Trade, Only Demanding A Pledge To Be Left On Shore
For Their Security, Because A French Ship Had Recently Carried Off Two
Of The Natives Perfidiously.
Aris Clawson, the junior merchant or
supercargo, went accordingly on shore, where he drove a small trade for
lemons and bananas, in exchange for glass beads.
In the mean time some
of the natives came off to the ships, bringing with them an interpreter
who spoke many languages. They here very conveniently furnished
themselves with fresh water, which poured down in great abundance from a
very high hill, so that they had only to place their casks under the
waterfall. There were here whole woods of lemon-trees, and lemons were
so cheap that they might have had a thousand for a few beads, and ten
thousand for a few common knives; so that they easily procured as many
as they wished, and each man had 150 for sea store. The 3d September
they found a vast shoal of fish, resembling a shoemaker's knife.
They left Sierra Leona on the 4th September; and on the 5th October,
being in lat 4 deg. 27' S. they were astonished by receiving a violent
stroke on the bottom of one of the ships, though no rock appeared to be
in the way. While forming conjectures on the occasion of this shock, the
sea all about the ship began to change colour, appearing as if some
great fountain of blood had opened into it. This sudden alteration of
the water seemed not less wonderful than the striking of the ship; but
the cause of both was not discovered till after their arrival in Port
Desire, when the ship was laid on shore to clean her bottom, when they
found a large horn, of a substance resembling ivory, sticking fast in
the bottom. It was entirely firm and solid, without any internal cavity,
and had pierced through three very stout planks, grazing one of the ribs
of the ship, and stuck at least a foot deep in the wood, leaving about
as much on the outside, up to the place where it broke off.[104]
[Footnote 104: This must have been a Narvai, or Narwhal, the Monodon
Monoceros, Licorne, or Unicornu Marinum, of naturalists, called likewise
the Unicorn Fish, or Sea Unicorn. - E.]
On the 25th of October, when no person knew whereabouts they were except
Schouten, the company was informed that the design of the voyage was to
endeavour to discover a new southern passage into the South Sea; and the
people appeared well pleased, expecting to discover some new golden
country to make amends for all their trouble and danger. The 26th they
were in lat. 6 deg. 25' S. and continued their course mostly to the south
all the rest of that month, till they were in lat 10 deg. 30' S. The 1st
September they had the sun at noon to the north; and in the afternoon
of the 3d they had sight of the isle of Ascension, in 20 deg.
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