The 27th day we had twenty fathom water all
night, yet we could not see land till one in the afternoon from our
topmast-head. By three we could just discern land from our quarter-deck; we had
then sixteen fathom. The wind was at north, and we steered east-by-north, which
is but one point in on the land; yet we decreased our water very fast, for at
four we had but nine fathom, the next cast but seven, which frightened us; and
we then tacked instantly and steed off, but in a short time the wind coming at
north-west and west-north-west, we tacked again and steered north-north-east,
and then deepened our water again, and had all night from fifteen to twenty
fathom.
The 28th day we had between twenty and forty fathom. We saw no land this day,
but saw a great many snakes and some whales. We saw also some boobies and
noddy-birds, and in the night caught one of these last. It was of another shape
and color than any I had seen before. It had a small long bill, as all of them
have, flat feet like ducks’ feet, its tail forked like a swallow, but longer and
broader, and the fork deeper than that of the swallow, with very long wings; the
top or crown of the head of this noddy was coal-black, having also small black
streaks round about and close to the eyes; and round these streaks on each side,
a pretty broad white circle. The breast, belly, and under part of the wings of
this noddy were white, and the back and upper part of its wings of a faint black
or smoke color. Noddies are seen in most places between the tropics, as well in
the East Indies and on the coast of Brazil, as in the West Indies. They rest
ashore at night, and therefore we never see them far at sea, not above twenty or
thirty leagues, unless driven off in a storm. When they come about a ship they
commonly perch in the night, and will sit still till they are taken by the
seamen. They build on cliffs against the sea, or rocks.
The 30th day, being in latitude 18 degrees 21 minutes, we made the land again,
and saw many great smokes near the shore; and having fair weather and moderate
breezes, I steered in towards it. At four in the afternoon I anchored in eight
fathom water, clear sand, about three leagues and a half from the shore. I
presently sent my boat to sound nearer in, and they found ten fathom about a
mile farther in, and from thence still farther in the water decreased gradually
to nine, eight, seven, and at two miles distance to six fathom. This evening we
saw an eclipse of the moon, but it was abating before the moon appeared to us;
for the horizon was very hazy, so that we could not see the moon till she had
been half an hour above the horizon; and at two hours twenty-two minutes after
sunset, by the reckoning of our glasses, the eclipse was quite gone, which was
not of many digits. The moon’s centre was then 33 degrees 40 minutes high.
The 31st of August, betimes in the morning, I went ashore with ten or eleven men
to search for water. We went armed with muskets and cutlasses for our defense,
expecting to see people there, and carried also shovels and pickaxes to dig
wells. When we came near the shore we saw three tall, black, naked men on the
sandy bay ahead of us; but as we rowed in, they went away. When we were landed,
I sent the boat with two men in her to lie a little from the shore at an anchor,
to prevent being seized; while the rest of us went after the three black men,
who were now got on the top of a small hill about a quarter of a mile from us,
with eight or nine men more in their company. They, seeing us coming, ran away.
When we came on the top of the hill where they first stood, we saw a plain
savannah, about half a mile from us, farther in from the sea. There were several
things like hay-cocks standing in the savannah, which at a distance we thought
were houses, looking just like the Hottentots’ houses at the Cape of Good Hope:
but we found them to be so many rocks. We searched about these for water, but
could find none, nor any houses, nor people, for they were all gone. Then we
turned again to the place where we landed, and there we dug for water.
While we were at work there came nine or ten of the natives to a small hill a
little way from us, and stood there menacing and threatening us, and making a
great noise. At last one of them came towards us, and the rest followed at a
distance. I went out to meet him, and came within fifty yards of him, making to
him all the signs of peace and friendship I could, but then he ran away, neither
would they any of them stay for us to come nigh them, for we tried two or three
times. At last I took two men with me, and went in the afternoon along by the
sea-side, purposely to catch one of them, if I could, of whom I might learn
where they got their fresh water. There were ten or twelve of the natives a
little way off, who, seeing us three going away from the rest of our men,
followed us at a distance. I thought they would follow us, but there being for
awhile a sand-bank between us and them, that they could not then see us, we made
a halt, and hid ourselves in a bending of the sand-bank. They knew we must be
thereabouts, and being three or four times our numbers, thought to seize us. So
they dispersed themselves, some going to the sea-shore, and others beating about
the sand-hills. We knew by what reencounter we had had with them in the morning
that we could easily out-run them, so a nimble young man that was with me,
seeing some of them near, ran towards them; and they for some time ran away
before him, but he soon overtaking them, they faced about and fought him. He had
a cutlass and they had wooden lances, with which, being many of them, they were
too hard for him. When he first ran towards them I chased two more that were by
the shore; but fearing how it might be with my young man, I turned back quickly
and went to the top of a sand-hill, whence I saw him near me, closely engaged
with them. Upon their seeing me, one of them threw a lance at me, that narrowly
missed me. I discharged my gun to scare them, but avoided shooting any of them,
till finding the young man in great danger from them, and myself in some; and
that though the gun had a little frightened them at first, yet they had soon
learnt to despise it, tossing up their hands and crying, “pooh, pooh, pooh,” and
coming on afresh with a great noise, I thought it high time to charge again, and
shoot one of them, which I did. The rest, seeing him fall, made a stand again,
and my young man took the opportunity to disengage himself and come off to me;
my other man also was with me, who had done nothing all this while, having come
out unarmed, and I returned back with my men, designing to attempt the natives
no farther, being very sorry for what had happened already. They took up their
wounded companion; and my young man, who had been struck through the cheek by
one of their lances, was afraid it had been poisoned, but I did not think that
likely. His wound was very painful to him, being made with a blunt weapon; but
he soon recovered of it.
Among the New Hollanders, whom we were thus engaged with, there was one who by
his appearance and carriage, as well in the morning as this afternoon, seemed to
be the chief of them, and a kind of prince or captain among them. He was a young
brisk man, not very tall, nor so personable as some of the rest, though more
active and courageous: he was painted (which none of the rest were at all) with
a circle of white paste or pigment (a sort of lime, as we thought) about his
eyes, and a white streak down his nose, from his forehead to the tip of it: and
his breast and some part of his arms were also made white with the same paint;
not for beauty or ornament, one would think, but as some wild Indian warriors
are said to do, he seemed thereby to design the looking more terrible; this his
painting adding very much to his natural deformity; for they all of them have
the most unpleasant looks and the worst features of any people that ever I saw,
though I have seen great variety of savages. These New Hollanders were probably
the same sort of people as those I met with on this coast in my voyage round the
world, for the place I then touched at was not above forty or fifty leagues to
the north-east of this, and these were much the same blinking creatures (here
being also abundance of the same kind of flesh-flies teasing them,) and with the
same black skins, and hair frizzled, tall and thin, &c. as those were: but we
had not the opportunity to see whether these, as the former, wanted two of their
fore-teeth.
We saw a great many places where they had made fires, and where there were
commonly three or four boughs stuck up to windward of them; for the wind, (which
is the sea-breeze), in the day-time blows always one way with them, and the
land-breeze is but small. By their fire-places we should always find great heaps
of fish-shells of several sorts; and it is probable that these poor creatures
here lived chiefly on the shell-fish, as those I before described did on small
fish, which they caught in wires or holes in the sand at low water. These
gathered their shell-fish on the rocks at low water but had no wires (that we
saw), whereby to get any other sorts of fish; as among the former I saw not any
heaps of shells as here, though I know they also gathered some shell-fish. The
lances also of those were such as these had; however, they being upon an island,
with their women and children, and all in our power, they did not there use them
against us, as here on the continent, where we saw none but some of the men
under head, who come out purposely to observe us. We saw no houses at either
place, and I believe they have none, since the former people on the island had
none, though they had all their families with them.
Upon returning to my men I saw that though they had dug eight or nine feet deep,
yet found no water. So I returned aboard that evening, and the next day, being
September 1st, I sent my boatswain ashore to dig deeper, and sent the seine
within him to catch fish. While I stayed aboard I observed the flowing of the
tide, which runs very swift here, so that our nun-buoy would not bear above the
water to be seen. It flows here (as on that part of New Holland I described
formerly) about five fathom; and here the flood runs south-east by south till
the last quarter; then it sets right in towards the shore (which lies here
south-south-west and north north-east) and the ebb runs north-west by north.
When the tides slackened we fished with hook and line, as we had already done in
several places on this coast; on which in this voyage hitherto we had found but
little tides; but by the height, and strength, and course of them hereabouts, it
should seem that if there be such a passage or strait going through eastward to
the great South Sea, as I said one might suspect, one would expect to find the
mouth of it somewhere between this place and Rosemary Island, which was the part
of New Holland I came last from.
Next morning my men came aboard and brought a runlet of brackish water which
they had got out of another well that they dug in a place a mile off, and about
half as far from the shore; but this water was not fit to drink. However, we all
concluded that it would serve to boil our oatmeal, for burgoo, whereby we might
save the remains of our other water for drinking, till we should get more: and
accordingly the next day we brought aboard four hogsheads of it: but while we
were at work about the well we were sadly pestered with the flies, which were
more troublesome to us than the sun, though it shone clear and strong upon us
all the while very hot. All this while we saw no more of the natives, but saw
some of the smoke of some of their fires at two or three miles distance.
The land hereabouts was much like the port of New Holland that I formerly
described; it is low, but seemingly barricaded with a long chain of sand-hills
to the sea, that lets nothing be seen of what is farther within land. At high
water the tides rising so high as they do, the coast shows very low: but when it
is low water it seems to be of an indifferent height. At low water-mark the
shore is all rocky, so that then there is no landing with a boat; but at high
water a boat may come in over those rocks to the sandy bay, which runs all along
on this coast. The land by the sea for about five or six hundred yards is a dry
sandy soil, bearing only shrubs and bushes of divers sorts. Some of these had
them at this time of the year, yellow flowers or blossoms, some blue, and some
white; most of them of a very fragrant smell. Some had fruit like peascods, in
each of which there were just ten small peas; I opened many of them, and found
no more nor less. There are also here some of that sort of bean which I saw at
Rosemary Island: and another sort of small red hard pulse, growing in cods also,
with little black eyes like beans. I know not their names, but have seen them
used often in the East Indies for weighing gold; and they make the same use of
them at Guinea, as I have heard, where the women also make bracelets with them
to wear about their arms. These grow on bushes; but here are also a fruit like
beans growing on a creeping sort of shrub-like vine. There was great plenty of
all these sorts of cod-fruit growing on the sand-hills by the sea side, some of
them green, some ripe, and some fallen on the ground: but I could not perceive
that any of them had been gathered by the natives; and might not probably be
wholesome food.
The land farther in, that is, lower than what borders on the sea, was so much as
we saw of it, very plain and even; partly savannahs and partly woodland. The
savannahs bear a sort of thin coarse grass. The mould is also a coarser sand
than that by the sea-side, and in some places it is clay. Here are a great many
rocks in the large savannah we were in, which are five or six feet high, and
round at top like a hay-cock, very remarkable; some red and some white. The
woodland lies farther in still, where there were divers sorts of small trees,
scarce any three feet in circumference, their bodies twelve or fourteen feet
high, with a head of small knibs or boughs. By the sides of the creeks,
especially nigh the sea, there grow a few small black mangrove-trees.
There are but few land animals. I saw some lizards; and my men saw two or three
beasts like hungry wolves, lean like so many skeletons, being nothing but skin
and bones; it is probable that it was the foot of one of those beasts that I
mentioned as seen by us in New Holland. We saw a raccoon or two, and one small
speckled snake.
The land fowls that we saw here were crows, just such as ours in England, small
hawks and kites, a few of each sort: but here are plenty of small turtle doves,
that are plump, fat, and very good meat. Here are two or three sorts of smaller
birds, some as big as larks, some less; but not many of either sort. The
sea-fowl are pelicans, boobies, noddies, curlews, seapies, &c., and but few of
these neither.
The sea is plentifully stocked with the largest whales that I ever saw; but not
to compare with the vast ones of the Northern Seas. We saw also a great many
green turtle, but caught none, here being no place to set a turtle net in; there
being no channel for them, and the tides running so strong. We saw some sharks
and parracoots; and with hooks and lines we caught some rock-fish and old-wives.
Of shell-fish, here were oysters both of the common kind for eating, and of the
pearl kind; and also whelks, conchs, muscles, limpits, periwinkles, &c., and I
gathered a few strange shells, chiefly a sort not large, and thickset all about
with rays or spikes growing in rows.
And thus having ranged about a considerable time upon this coast, without
finding any good fresh water or any convenient place to clean the ship, as I had
hoped for; and it being moreover the height of the dry season, and my men
growing scorbutic for want of refreshments, so that I had little encouragement
to search further, I resolved to leave this coast, and accordingly in the
beginning of September set sail towards Timor.
On the 12th of December, 1699, we sailed from Babao, coasting along the island
Timor to the eastward, towards New Guinea. It was the 20th before we got as far
as Laphao, which is but forty leagues. We saw black clouds in the north-west,
and expected the wind from that quarter above a month sooner.
That afternoon we saw the opening between the islands Omba and Fetter, but
feared to pass through in the night. At two o’clock in the morning it fell calm,
and continued so till noon, in which time we drove with the current back again
south-west six or seven leagues.
On the 22nd, steering to the eastward to get through between Omba and Fetter, we
met a very strong tide against us, so that although we had a very fresh gale, we
yet made way very slowly; but before night got through. By a good observation we
found that the south-east point of Omba lies in latitude 8 degrees 25 minutes.
In my drafts it is laid down in 8 degrees 10 minutes. My true course from Babao,
is east 25 degrees north, distance one hundred eighty-three miles. We sounded
several times when near Omba, but had no ground. On the north-east point of Omba
we saw four or five men, and a little further three pretty houses on a low
point, but did not go ashore.
At five this afternoon we had a tornado, which yielded much rain, thunder, and
lightning; yet we had but little wind. The 24th in the morning we caught a large
shark, which gave all the ship’s company a plentiful meal.
The 27th we saw the Burning Island; it lies in latitude 6 degrees 36 minutes
south; it is high, and but small; it runs from the sea a little sloping towards
the top, which is divided in the middle into two peaks, between which issued out
much smoke: I have not seen more from any volcano. I saw no trees; but the north
side appeared green, and the rest looked very barren.
Having passed the Burning Island, I shaped my course for two islands, called
Turtle Isles, which lie north-east by east a little easterly, and distant about
fifty leagues from the Burning Isle. I fearing the wind might veer to the
eastward of the north, steered twenty leagues north-east, then north-east by
east. On the 28th we saw two small low islands, called Lucca-Parros, to the
north of us. At noon I accounted myself twenty leagues short of the Turtle
Isles.
The next morning, being in the latitude of the Turtle Islands, we looked out
sharp for them, but saw no appearance of any island till eleven o’clock, when we
saw an island at a great distance. At first we supposed it might be one of the
Turtle Isles, but it was not laid down true, neither in latitude nor longitude
from the Burning Isle, nor from the Lucca-Parros, which last I took to be a
great help to guide me, they being laid down very well from the Burning Isle,
and that likewise in true latitude and distance from Omba, so that I could not
tell what to think of the island now in sight, we having had fair weather, so
that we could not pass by the Turtle Isles without seeing them, and this in
sight was much too far off for them. We found variation 1 degrees 2 minutes
east. In the afternoon I steered north-east by east for the islands that we saw.
At two o’clock I went and looked over the fore-yard, and saw two islands at much
greater distance than the Turtle Islands are laid down in my drafts, one of them
was a very high peaked mountain, cleft at top, and much like the Burning Island
that we passed by, but bigger and higher; the other was a pretty long high flat
island. Now I was certain that these were not the Turtle Islands, and that they
could be no other than the Bande Isles, yet we steered in to make them plainer.
At three o’clock we discovered another small flat island to the north-west of
the others, and saw a great deal of smoke rise from the top of the high island.
At four we saw other small islands, by which I was now assured that these were
the Bande Isles there. At five I altered my course and steered east, and at
eight east-south-east, because I would not be seen by the inhabitants of those
islands in the morning. We had little wind all night, and in the morning, as
soon as it was light we saw another high peaked island; at eight it bore
south-south-east half-east, distance eight leagues: and this I knew to be Bird
Isle. It is laid down in our drafts in latitude 5 degrees 9 minutes south, which
is too far southerly by twenty-seven miles, according to our observation, and
the like error in laying down the Turtle Islands might be the occasion of our
missing them.
At night I shortened sail, for fear of coming too nigh some islands, that
stretch away bending like a half moon from Ceram towards Timor, and which in my
course I must of necessity pass through. The next morning betimes I saw them,
and found them to be at a farther distance from Bird Island than I expected. In
the afternoon it fell quite calm, and when we had a little wind, it was so
unconstant, flying from one point to another, that I could not without
difficulty get through the islands where I designed; besides, I found a current
setting to the southward, so that it was betwixt five and six in the evening
before I passed through the islands, and then just weathered little Watela,
whereas I thought to have been two or three leagues more northerly. We saw the
day before, betwixt two and three, a spout but a small distance from us, it fell
down out of a black cloud, that yielded great store of rain, thunder and
lightning; this cloud hovered to the southward of us for the space of three
hours, and then drew to the westward a great pace, at which time it was that we
saw the spout, which hung fast to the cloud till it broke, and then the cloud
whirled about to the south-east, then to east-north-east, where meeting with an
island, it spent itself and so dispersed, and immediately we had a little of the
tail of it, having had none before. Afterwards we saw a smoke on the island
Kosiway, which continued till night.
On New Year’s Day we first descried the land of New Guinea, which appeared to be
high land, and the next day we saw several high islands on the coast of New
Guinea, and ran in with the main land. The shore here lies along east-south-east
and west-north-west. It is high even land, very well clothed with tall
flourishing trees, which appeared very green, and gave us a very pleasant
prospect. We ran to the westward of four mountainous islands, and in the night
had a small tornado, which brought with it some rain and a fair wind. We had
fair weather for a long time, only when near any land we had some tornadoes; but
off, at sea, commonly clear weather, though, if in sight of land, we usually saw
many black clouds hovering about it.
On the 5th and 6th of January we plied to get in with the land, designing to
anchor, fill water, and spend a little time in searching the country, till after
the change of the moon, for I found a strong current setting against us. We
anchored in thirty-eight fathom water, good oozy ground. We had an island of a
league long without us, about three miles distant, and we rode from the main
about a mile. The easternmost point of land seen bore east-by-south half-south,
distance three leagues, and the westernmost west-south-west half-south, distance
two leagues. So soon as we anchored, we sent the pinnace to look for water and
try if they could catch any fish. Afterwards we sent the yawl another way to see
for water. Before night the pinnace brought on board several sorts of fruits
that they found in the woods, such as I never saw before. One of my men killed a
stately land-fowl, as big as the largest dunghill cock; it was of a sky-color,
only in the middle of the wings was a white spot, about which were some reddish
spots; on the crown it had a large bunch of long feathers, which appeared very
pretty; his bill was like pigeon’s; he had strong legs and feet, like dunghill
fowls, only the claws were reddish; his crop was full of small berries. It lays
an egg as big as a large hen’s egg, for our men climbed the tree where it
nested, and brought off one egg. They found water, and reported that the trees
were large, tall, and very thick, and that they saw no sign of people. At night
the yawl came aboard and brought a wooden fish-spear, very ingeniously made, the
matter of it was a small cane; they found it by a small barbecue, where they
also saw a shattered canoe.
The next morning I sent the boatswain ashore fishing, and at one haul he caught
three hundred and fifty-two mackerel, and about twenty other fishes, which I
caused to be equally divided among all my company. I sent also the gunner and
chief mate to search about if they could find convenient anchoring near a
watering-place; by night they brought word that they had found a fine stream of
good water, where the boat could come close to, and it was very easy to be
filled, and that the ship might anchor as near to it as I pleased, so I went
thither. The next morning, therefore, we anchored in twenty-five fathom water,
soft oozy ground, about a mile from the river; we got on board three tons of
water that night, and caught two or three pike-fish, in shape much like a
parracota, but with a longer snout, something resembling a garr, yet not so
long. The next day I sent the boat again for water, and before night all my
casks were full.
Having filled here about fifteen tons of water, seeing we could catch but little
fish, and had no other refreshments, I intended to sail next day, but finding
that we wanted wood, I sent to cut some, and going ashore to hasten it, at some
distance from the place where our men were, I found a small cove, where I saw
two barbecues, which appeared not to be above two months’ standing; the spars
were cut with some sharp instrument, so that, if done by the natives, it seems
that they have iron. On the 10th, a little after twelve o’clock, we weighed and
stood over to the north side of the bay, and at one o’clock stood out with the
wind at north and north-north-west. At four we passed out by a White Island,
which I so named from its many white cliffs, having no name in our drafts. It is
about a league long, pretty high, and very woody; it is about five miles from
the main, only at the west end it reaches within three miles of it. At some
distance off at sea the west point appears like a cape-land, the north side
trends away north-north-west, and the east side east-south-east. This island
lies in latitude 3 degrees 4 minutes south, and the meridian distance from Babao
five hundred and twelve miles east. After we were out to sea, we plied to get to
the northward, but met with such a strong current against us, that we got but
little, for if the wind favored us in the night, that we got three or four
leagues, we lost it again, and were driven as far astern next morning, so that
we plied here several days.
The 14th, being past a point of land that we had been three days getting about,
we found little or no current, so that, having the wind at north-west-by-west
and west-north-west, we stood to the northward, and had several soundings: at
three o’clock thirty-eight fathom, the nearest part of New Guinea being about
three leagues’ distance; at four, thirty-seven; at five, thirty-six; at six,
thirty-six; at eight, thirty-three fathom; then the Cape was about four leagues’
distant, so that as we ran off we found our water shallower; we had then some
islands to the westward of us, at about four leagues’ distance.
A little after noon we saw smoke on the islands to the west of us, and having a
fine gale of wind, I steered away for them. At seven o’clock in the evening we
anchored in thirty-five fathom, about two leagues from an island, good soft oozy
ground. We lay still all night, and saw fires ashore. In the morning we weighed
again, and ran farther in, thinking to have shallower water; but we ran within a
mile of the shore, and came to in thirty-eight fathom good soft holding ground.
While we were under sail two canoes came off within call of us. They spoke to
us, but we did not understand their language nor signs. We waved to them to come
aboard, and I called to them in the Malayan language to do the same, but they
would not. Yet they came so nigh us that we could show them such things as we
had to truck with them; yet neither would this entice them to come on board, but
they made signs for us to come ashore, and away they went. Then I went after
them in my pinnace, carrying with me knives, beads, glasses, hatchets, &c. When
we came near the shore, I called to them in the Malayan language. I saw but two
men at first, the rest lying in ambush behind the bushes; but as soon as I threw
ashore some knives and other toys, they came out, flung down their weapons, and
came into the water by the boat’s side, making signs of friendship by pouring
water on their heads with one hand, which they dipped into the sea. The next
day, in the afternoon, several other canoes came aboard, and brought many roots
and fruits, which we purchased.
Early Australian Voyages, 1886, John Pinkerton |
