Part 13

MARCH.

On the first the wind was W. by N. with rain: we find that in these latitudes the southern and northern moon makes high water; at noon we weighed anchor and drifted with the current, which set strongly to westward.

On the second the wind was west with fair weather, with which we found it impossible to weather the land; in the evening we were in Lat. 6° 45'.

In the morning of the third the wind was W., with a strong gale and rain; at noon we had fair weather so that myself and the council determined to set sail on a Northern course in order to seek the yacht Aernem; when we had run on the said course for the space of 5 glasses, we saw the said yacht N.W. of us, but since the current ran very strong in our teeth, we dropped anchor in 10 fathom.

In the morning of the 4th the wind was north, with which we set sail in order to get near the Aernem; but when we had sailed for an hour, the headwind and counter-current forced us to drop anchor.

The yacht aforesaid, which was lying above the wind and the current, now weighed her anchor and dropped the same near the Pera, after which the skipper of the Aernern came on board of us in the pinnace, and informed me that they had very nearly lost the yacht in the storm before mentioned, since all the seas they had shipped had found their way into the hold, which got so full of water that the greater part of their rice, powder and matches had become wet through; this same day I sent the skipper and the steersman of the Pera on board the yacht Aernem in order to inquire into her condition, and ascertain whether she was so weak and disabled as had been reported to me; since the persons committed reported that the yacht was very weak and disabled above the waterline, it has been resolved that the main-topmast, which they had already taken down by way of precaution, should not be put up again provisionally.

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The same day we set sail again with the wind as before, course held S.W., and after running on for two miles, we cast anchor again in 11 fathom.

In the morning of the 5th we set sail again, with a W. wind; course held S.S.W. when we had run on for two miles we got change of weather with variable winds, in the evening we came to anchor in 13 fathom...

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On the 6th we set sail again before daybreak, the wind being West; course held S.S.W., sailed three miles; about noon, the wind blowing straight for the coast, we cast anchor in 5Ω fathom at a mile's distance from the coast, and, in conformity with the resolution, fetched a light anchor from the yacht Aernem.

(Keerweer, formerly mistaken for island.)

In the morning of the 7th we set sail again, the wind being N.E., course held W., in order to get a little farther off the land; when we had run a mile, we dropped anchor in 5Ω fathom, and I went ashore myself with two well-manned and armed pinnaces, because on the 6th aforesaid we had seen 4 or 5 canoes making from the land for the yachts; when we got near the land we saw a small canoe with three blacks; when we rowed towards them, they went back to the land and put one of the three ashore, as we supposed, in order to give warning for the natives there to come in great numbers and seize and capture our pinnaces; for as soon as we made towards them, they tried to draw us on, slowly paddling on towards the land; at last the "jurebass"(?) swam to them, with some strings of beads, but they refused to admit him; so we made signs and called out to them, but they paid little or no attention, upon which we began to pull back to the yacht without having effected anything; the blacks or savages seeing this, slowly followed us, and when we showed them beads and iron objects, they cautiously came near one of our pinnaces; one of the sailors in the pinnace inadvertently touching the canoe with one of his oars, the blacks forthwith began to attack our men, and threw several callaways into the pinnace, without, however, doing any damage owing to the caution used by the men in her; in order to frighten them the corporal fired a musket, which hit them both, so that they died on the spot; we then rowed back to the yachts. To the place on the coast where the aforesaid incident took place, we have given the name of Keerweer (= Turn again) in the new chart, seeing that the land here trends to S.W. and West; its latitude being 7°.

On the 8th we had a strong gale from the S.S.W. the whole day, with rain and unsteady weather, so that we thought it best to remain at anchor.

In the morning of the 9th the weather was fair, and the wind west, so that we set sail on a N.N.W. course; when we had run one mile we saw two groups of canoes putting off from shore and making for us, one consisting of 7, and the other of 8 small canoes; as we were lying close to the wind and could not weather the land with it, we came to anchor in 3 fathom; one of the canoes aforesaid came so near us, that we could call out to her, but the second group aforesaid kept quiet, upon which the canoe which had been near us, paddled towards this second group; from their various gestures we saw and understood sufficiently that their intentions had from the first been anything but peaceable, but God's Providence prevented them from carrying their wicked plans into effect; in the evening we set sail again with the current, the wind being west and our course held N.N.W. in the first watch we turned our course S.W. and S.W. by W., on which we sailed the whole night, until about daybreak we found the water shallowing and dropped anchor in 2Ω fathom, having sailed 5 miles.

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In the morning of the 10th we set sail again, the wind being W.N.W., on a S.W. course; at noon we were in Lat. 7° 35'; in the evening we came to anchor in 3 fathom muddy bottom, at about 1Ω mile's distance from the land.

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NOTE

That it is impossible to land here with boats or pinnaces, owing to the clayey and muddy bottom into which a man will sink up to the waist, the depth of the water being no more than 3 or 4 fathom at 3 or 4 miles' distance from the land; the land is low-lying and half-submerged, being quite under water at high tide; it is covered with wild trees, those on the beach resembling the fir-trees of our country, and seemingly bearing no fruit; the natives are coal-black like the Caffres; they go about stark naked, carrying their privities in a small conch-shell, tied to the body with a bit of string; they have two holes in the midst of the nose, with fangs of hogs of swordfishes through them, protruding at least three fingers' breadths on either side, so that in appearance they are more like monsters than human beings; they seem to be evil-natured and malignant; their canoes are small and will not hold above 3 of 4 of them at most; they are made out of one piece of wood, and the natives stand up in them, paddling them on by means of long oars; their arms are arrows, bows, assagays and callaways, which they use with great dexterity and skill; broken iron, parangs and knives are in special demand with them. The lands which we have up to now skirted and touched at, not only are barren and inhabited by savages, but also the sea in these parts yields no other fish than sharks, sword-fishes and the like unnatural monsters, while the birds too are as as wild and shy as the men.

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In the morning of the 11th, the wind being W.N.W. and the weather fair, we set sail on a S.S.W. course along the coast in 4, 3Ω and 2Ω fathom muddy bottom; towards the evening we saw no more land ahead of us, the farthest extremity falling off quite to eastward, and extending east by south; we accordingly ran S.S.E., but it was not long before we got into 2 fathom water and even less. We therefore went over to the north, and in the evening dropped anchor in' fathom, having this day sailed eight miles to S.S.W.

In the morning of the 12th the wind blew from the N.W.; in the forenoon I rowed to the land myself with the two pinnaces well-manned and armed, in order to see if there was anything worth note there; but when we had got within a musket-shot of the land, the water became so shallow that we could not get any farther, whereupon we all of us went through the mud up to our waists, and with extreme difficulty reached the beach, where we saw a number of fresh human foot-prints; on going a short distance into the wood, we also saw twenty or more small huts made of dry grass, the said huts being so small and cramped that a man could hardly get into them on all fours, from which we could sufficiently conclude that the natives here must be of small stature, poor and wretched; we afterwards tried to penetrate somewhat {Page 30} farther into the wood, in order to ascertain the nature and situation of the country, when on our coming upon a piece of brushwood, a number of blacks sprang out of it, and began to let fly their arrows at us with great fury and loud shouts, by which a carpenter was wounded in the belly and an assistant in the leg: we were all of us hard pressed, upon which we fired three or four muskets at them killing one of the blacks stone-dead, which utterly took away their courage; they dragged the dead man into the wood, and we, being so far from the pinnaces and having a very difficult path to go in order to get back to them, resolved to return and row back to the yachts.

(The Valsch Caep is 8 degrees 15 minutes south of the equator and 70 miles S.E. of Aru.)

The The same day at low tide we saw a large sandbank, S.E., S., and S.W. of us, where we had been with the yacht on the 11th last, the said sandbank extending fully 4 miles W., S.W. and W. by S. of the land or foreland; on which account we have in the new chart given to the same the name of de Valsch Caep [*]; it is in Lat. 8° 15' South, and about 70 miles east of Aru.

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NOTE

That the land which we have touched at as above mentioned, is low-lying and half-submerged to northward, so that a large part of it is under water at high tide; to the south it is somewhat higher and inhabited by certain natives who have built huts there; so far as we could ascertain the land is barren, covered with tall wild trees; the natives quite black and naked without any covering to hide their privy parts; their hair curly in the manner of the Papues: they wear certain fish-bones through the nose, and through their ears pieces of tree-bark, a span in length, so that they look more like monsters than like human beings: their weapons are arrows and bows which they use with great skill.