0 Deg.
29' S. Still Seeing Much Land To The South, Some Of Which Were Very High
And Some Low, Which They Passed, Continuing Their Course To The North Of
West.
The 29th they felt the shock of an earthquake, which shook the
ship to that degree that the men ran terrified out of their births,
believing the ship had run a-ground, or had bilged against some rock.
On
heaving the lead they found the sea unfathomable, and their ship clear
from all danger of rocks or shoals. The 30th they put into a great bay,
out of which they could find no opening to the west, and resumed
therefore a northern course. Here the ship trembled again with loud
claps of thunder, and was almost set on fire by the lightning, had it
not been prevented by prodigious rain.
[Footnote 130: The centre of Schouten Island is in lat. 0 deg. 30' S. and
long. 223 deg. W. It is nearly 24 leagues long from E. to W. and about eight
leagues from N. to S. In some maps this island is named Mysory,
probably the native appellation, and it lies off the mouth of a great
bay, having within it another island of considerable size, called
Jobie, or Traitor's Island. - E.]
The 31st, continuing a northern course, they passed to the north of the
equator, and being encompassed almost all round by land, they anchored
in twelve fathoms on good ground, near a desolate island which lay close
by the main land. The 1st of August they were in lat. 0 deg. 15' N. The 2d
and 3d being calm, they were carried by the current W. and W. by N. This
day at noon their latitude was 0 deg. 35' N. when they saw several whales
and sea-tortoises, with two islands to the westwards. They now reckoned
themselves at the western extremity of the land of New Guinea, along
which they had sailed 280 leagues. Several canoes came off to them in
the morning of the 5th, bringing Indian beans, rice, tobacco, and two
beautiful birds of paradise, all white and yellow. These Indians spoke
the language of Ternate, and some of them could speak a little Spanish
and Malayan, in which last language Clawson the merchant was well
skilled. All the people in these canoes were finely clothed from the
waist downwards, some with loose silken robes, and others with breeches,
and several had silken turbans on their head, being Mahometans. All of
them had jet black hair, and wore many gold and silver rings on their
fingers. They bartered their provisions with the Dutch for beads and
other toys, but seemed more desirous of having linen. They appeared so
fearful and suspicious of the Dutch, that they would not tell the name
of their country, which however was suspected to be one of the three
eastern points of Gilolo, and that the people were natives of Tidore,
which was afterwards found to be the case.
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