But, On A Discharge From The Ship, They Made
Off In Haste, Leaving Two Of Their Companions Behind Them Who Were
Slain, And A Shirt They Had Stolen From The Ship.
Next day other natives
came to the ship on friendly and peaceable terms, bringing cocoa-nuts,
ubes-roots, and roasted hogs, which they bartered for knives, beads, and
nails.
[Footnote 120: It is almost needless to mention, that if Schouten had
continued his course in the former parallel of between 15 deg. and 16 deg. S. he
must have fallen in with the group of islands now called the New
Hebrides, and afterward with the northern part of New South Wales. - E.]
[Footnote 121: This was only one island, in lat. 15 deg. S. and long. 180 deg.
10' W. which they named Horn Island. - E.]
The natives of this island were all as expert swimmers and divers as
those in Traitor's Island, and as well versed in cheating and stealing,
which they never failed to do when an opportunity offered. Their houses
stood all along the shore, being thatched with leaves, and having each a
kind of penthouse to shed off the rain. They were mostly ten or twelve
feet high, and twenty-five feet in compass, their only furniture within
being a bed of dry leaves, a fishing-rod or two, and a great club, even
the house of their king being no better provided than the rest. At this
island the Dutch found good convenience for watering; and on the 26th
they sent three of their principal people on shore as hostages, or
pledges, of friendship with the islanders, retaining six of them aboard
in the same capacity.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 282 of 825
Words from 76490 to 76771
of 224764
