On The
27th A Good Watering-Place Was Found, Where Fifty Soldiers Were Landed
To Protect The Seamen.
In the beginning of February, the natives brought
them considerable quantities of rice, giving 70 or 80 pounds weight in
exchange for an old hatchet.
On the 5th, by a general muster, 1260 men
were found to remain in the fleet, including 32 Spanish and Negro
prisoners, so that they had lost 409 since leaving Holland.
[Footnote 141: The relation of the voyage is too vague even to
conjecture what island is here meant, but from the direction of the
course towards Guam or Guaham it may possibly have been that now called
Dawson's island, about 600 leagues nearly east from Guam. - E.]
The island of Guam, Guaham, or Guaci, one of the group named by the
Spaniards Islas de las Velas, Ladrones, or Mariane Islands, is in
lat 13 deg. 40' N.[142] The soil is tolerably fertile producing vast
quantities of cocoas, and the natives grow rice in several places. The
Dutch procured here about 2000 fowls, but the natives would not part
with their cattle for any price. The people of this island are larger
than other Indians' strong and well-proportioned, and are mostly painted
red, the men going entirely naked, and the women having a leaf to cover
their nakedness. Their arms are assagaies, or javelins and slings,
both of which they use with great dexterity. Their canoes are very
convenient, and go before the wind at a great rate; neither are these
islanders afraid of putting to sea even in a storm; as, in case of their
vessels being overset, they turn them up again immediately, and bale out
the water. They were also very expert in cheating; for when the Dutch
came to examine the bags of rice they had bought so cheap, they found
the insides full of stones and dirt; besides which, they stole every
thing they could lay hold of. Such persons also as land on this island
ought to be very cautious, as the Dutch had several of their people
slain here, through their own folly.
[Footnote 142: Lat. 13 deg. 20' N. long. 143 deg. 20' E. from Greenwich.]
Proceeding on the voyage, they saw an island on the 14th of February, in
the latitude of 10 deg. 30' N. which they took to be the island of
Saavedra.[143] Next day, about nine in the morning, they saw another
island, not laid down in the charts, in lat. 9 deg. 45' N.[144] the natives
of which came out to them in canoes with fruits and other refreshments,
but as the ships were sailing at a great rate, they were not able to get
on board. The people seemed much like those of Guam, and the island
seemed very populous and highly cultivated. It was now resolved to
continue their course to the island of Gilolo, and thence to Ternate.
The 2d March, they had sight of the high mountain of [illegible], on the
coast of Moco, at the west end of the great island of [illegible] or
Gilolo, on the west side of which the Molucca islands are situated.
They arrived at Malaya, the principal place in Ternate, on the 4th in
the evening.
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