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:
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