A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

Upon this intelligence we ordered all hands to dredging again, on the west side of the island. This was in a narrow channel, between this island and a little cluster of islands which we found together extended west, the channel where our men fished might be about a league over, or something better, and the water about five or seven fathoms deep.

They came home well tired and ill pleased, having taken nothing near so many oysters, as before; but I was much better pleased, when, in opening them, we found a hundred and fifty-eight pearls, of the most perfect colour, and of extraordinary shape and size, besides double the number of a less size, and irregular shape.

This quickened our diligence, and encouraged our men, for I promised the men two pieces of eight to each man above his pay, if I got any considerable quantity of pearl. Upon this they spread themselves among the islands, and fished for a whole week, and I got such a quantity of pearl as made it very well worth our while; and, besides that, I had reason to believe the men, at least the officers who went with them, concealed a considerable quantity among themselves; which, however, I did not think fit to inquire very strictly after at that time.

Had we been nearer home, and not at so very great an expense, as three ships, and so many men at victuals and wages, or had we been where we might have left one of our vessels to fish, and have come to them again, we would not have given it over while there had been an oyster left in the sea, or, at least, that we could come at: but as things stood, I resolved to give it over, and put to sea.

But when I was just giving orders, Captain Merlotte came to me, and told me that all the officers in the three ships had joined together to make an humble petition to me, which was, that I would give them one day to fish for themselves; that the men had promised that, if I would consent, they would work for them gratis; and likewise, if they gained anything considerable, they would account for as much out of their wages as should defray the ships' expense, victuals, and wages, for the day.

This was so small a request, that I readily consented to it, and told them I would give them three days, provided they were willing to give the men a largess, as I had done, in proportion to their gain. This they agreed to, and to work they went; but whether it was that the fellows worked with a better will, or that the officers gave them more liquor, or that they found a new bank of oysters, which had not been found out before, but so it was, that the officers got as many pearls, and some of extraordinary size and beauty, as they afterwards sold, when they came to Peru, for three thousand two hundred and seventeen pieces of eight.

When they had done this, I told them it was but right that, as they had made so good a purchase for themselves by the labour of the men, the men should have the consideration which I had proposed to them. But now I would make another condition with them, that we would stay three days more, and whatever was caught in these three days should be shared among the men at the first port we came at, where they could be sold, that the men who had now been out so long might have something to buy clothes and liquors, without anticipating their wages; but then I made a condition with the men too, viz., that whatever was taken they should deposit it in my hands, and with the joint trust of three men of their own choosing, one out of each ship, and that we would sell the pearl, and I should divide the money among them equally, that so there might be no quarrelling or discontent, and that none of them should play any part of it away. These engagements they all came willingly into, and away they went a dredging, relieving one another punctually, so that in the three whole days every man worked an equal share of hours with the rest.

But the poor men had not so good luck for themselves as they had for their officers. However, they got a considerable quantity, and some very fine ones; among the rest they had two in the exact shape of a pear, and very exactly matched; and these they would needs make me a present of, because I had been so kind to them to make the proposal for them. I would have paid for them two hundred pieces of eight, but one and all, they would not be paid, and would certainly have been very much troubled if I had not accepted of them. And yet the success of the men was not so small but, joined with the two pieces of eight a man which I allowed them on the ships' account, and the like allowance the officers made them, and the produce of their own purchase, they divided afterwards about fifteen pieces of eight a man, which was a great encouragement to them.

Thus we spent in the whole, near three weeks here, and called these the Pearl Islands, though we had given no names to any of the places before. We were the more surprised with this unexpected booty, because we all thought it very unusual to find pearl of so excellent a kind in such a latitude as that of 49 to 50°; but it seems there are riches yet unknown in those parts of the world, where they have never been yet expected, and I have been told, by those who pretend to give a reason for it, that if there was any land directly under the poles, either south or north, there would be found gold of a fineness more than double to any that was ever yet found in the world: and this is the reason, they say, why the magnetic influence directs to the poles, that being the centre of the most pure metals, and why the needle touched with the loadstone or magnet always points to the north or south pole. But I do not recommend this, as a certainty, because it is evident no demonstration could ever be arrived at, nor could any creature reach to that particular spot of land under the pole, if such there should be, those lands being surrounded with mountains of snow and frozen seas, which never thaw, and are utterly impassable either for ships or men.

But to return to our voyage; having thus spent as I have said, three weeks on this unexpected expedition, we set sail, and as I was almost satisfied with the discoveries we had made, I was for bending my course due east and so directly for the south part of America; but the winds now blowing fresh from the north-west, and good weather, I took the occasion as a favourable summons, to keep still on southing as well as east till we came into the latitude of 56°, when our men, who had been all along a warm weather voyage, began to be pinched very much with the cold, and particularly complained that they had no clothes sufficient for it.

But they were brought to be content by force; for the wind continuing at north and north-north-west, and blowing very hard, we were obliged to keep on our course farther south, indeed, than I ever intended, and one of the men swore we should be driven to the south pole. Indeed, we rather ran afore it than kept our course, and in this run we suffered the extremest cold, though a northerly wind in those latitudes is the warm wind, as a southerly is here; but it was attended with rain and snow, and both freezing violently. At length one of our men cried out, Land, and our men began to rejoice; but I was quite of a different opinion, and my fears were but too just, for as soon as ever he cried Land, and that I asked him in what quarter, and he answered due south, which was almost right ahead, I gave orders to wear the ship, and put her about immediately, not doubting but instead of land I should find it a mountain of ice, and so it was; and it was happy for us that we had a stout ship under us, for it blew a fret of wind. However, the ship came very well about, though when she filled again, we found the ice not half a league distance under our stern.

As I happened to be the headmost ship, I fired two guns to give notice to our other vessels, for that was our signal to come about, but that which was very uneasy to me, the weather was hazy, and they were both out of sight; which was the first time that we lost one another in those seas; however, being both to windward, and within hearing of my guns, they took the warning, and came about with more leisure and less hazard than I had done.

I stood away now to the eastward, firing guns continually, that they might know which way to follow; and they answered me duly, to let me know that they heard me.

It was our good fortune also, that it was day when we were so near running into this danger. In the afternoon the wind abated, and the weather cleared up; we then called a council, and resolved to go no farther south, being then in the latitude of 67° south, which I suppose is the farthest southern latitude that any European ship ever saw in those seas.

That night it froze extremely hard, and the wind veering to the south-west, it was the severest cold that ever I felt in my life; a barrel or cask of water, which stood on the deck, froze entirely in one night into one lump, and our cooper, knocking off the hoops from the cask, took it to pieces, and the barrel of ice stood by itself, in the true shape of the vessel it had been in. This wind was, however, favourable to our deliverance, for we stood away now north-east and north-east-by-north, making fresh way with a fair wind.

We made no more land till we came into the latitude of 62°, when we saw some islands at a great distance, on both sides of us; we believed them to be islands, because we saw many of them with large openings between. But we were all so willing to get into a warmer climate, that we did not incline to put in anywhere, till, having run thus fifteen days and the wind still holding southerly, with small alteration and clear weather, we could easily perceive the climate to change, and the weather grow milder. And here taking an observation, I found we were in the latitude of 50° 30', and that our meridian distance from the Ladrones west was 87°, being almost one semi-diameter of the globe, so that we could not be far from the coast of America, which was my next design, and indeed the chief design of the whole voyage.

On this expectation I changed my course a little, and went away north-by-east, till by an observation I found myself in 47° 7', and then standing away east for about eleven days more, we made the tops of the Andes, the great mountains of Chili, in South America, to our great joy and satisfaction, though at a very great distance.

We found our distance from the shore not less than twenty leagues, the mountains being so very high; and our next business was to consider what part of the Andes it must be, and to what port we should direct ourselves first. Upon the whole, we found we were too much to the south still, and resolved to make directly for the river or port of Valdivia, or Baldivia, as it is sometimes called, in the latitude of 40°; so we stood away to the north. The next day the pacific, quiet sea, as it is termed, showed us a very frowning rough countenance, and proved the very extreme of a contrary disposition; for it blew a storm of wind at east-by-south, and drove us off the coast again, but it abated again for a day or two; and then for six days together it blew excessive hard, almost all at east, so that I found no possibility of getting into the shore; and besides, I found that the winds came off that mountainous country in squalls, and that the nearer we came to the hills the gusts were the more violent. So I resolved to run for the island of Juan Fernandez, to refresh ourselves there until the weather was settled; and besides, we wanted fresh water very much.

The little that the wind stood southerly helped me in this run, and we came in five days more, fair with the island, to our great joy, and brought all our ships to an anchor as near the watering-place as is usual, where we rode easy, though, the wind continued to blow very hard; and being, I say, now about the middle of our voyage, I shall break off my account here, as of the first part of my work, and begin again at our departure from hence.

It is true, we had got over much the greater run, as to length of way; but the most important part of our voyage was yet to come, and we had no inconsiderable length to run neither, for as we purposed to sail north, the height of Panama, in the latitude of 9° north, and back again by Cape Horn, in the latitude of, perhaps, 60° south, and that we were now in 40° south; those three added to the run, from Cape Horn home to England made a prodigious length, as will be seen by this following account, in which also the meridian distances are not all reckoned, though those also are very great.

N.B. There must be deducted from this account the distance from Lima to Panama, because we did not go up to Panama, as we intended to do.

By this account we had almost 30° to run more than a diameter of the globe, besides our distance west, where we then were, from the meridian of England, whither we were to go; which, if exactly calculated, is above 70°, take it from the island of Juan Fernandez.

But to return a little to our stay in this place, for that belongs to this part of my account, and of which I must make a few short observations.

It was scarce possible to restrain Englishmen, after so long beating the sea, from going on shore when they came to such a place of refreshment as this; nor indeed was it reasonable to restrain them, considering how we all might be supposed to stand in need of refreshment, and considering that here was no length of ground for the men to wander in, no liquors to come at to distract them with their excess, and, which was still more, no women to disorder or debauch them. We all knew their chief exercise would be hunting goats for their subsistence, and we knew also, that, however they wanted the benefit of fresh provision, they must work hard to catch it before they could taste the sweet of it. Upon these considerations, I say, our ships being well moored, and riding safe, we restrained none of them, except a proper number to take care of each ship; and those were taken out by lot, and then had their turn also to go on shore some days afterwards, and in the mean time had both fresh water and fresh meat sent them immediately, and that in sufficient quantity to their satisfaction. As soon as we were on shore, and had looked about us, we began first with getting some fresh water, for we greatly wanted it. Then carrying a small cask of arrack on shore, I made a quantity of it be put into a whole butt of water before I let our men drink a drop; so correcting a little the chilness of the water, because I knew they would drink an immoderate quantity, and endanger their healths, and the effect answered my care; for, those who drank at the spring where they took in the water, before I got this butt filled, and before the arrack was put into it, fell into swoonings and faint sweats, having gorged themselves too much with the cool water; and two or three I thought would have died, but our surgeons took such care of them, that they recovered.

While this was doing, others cut down branches of trees and built us two large booths, and five or six smaller, and we made two tents with some old sails; and thus we encamped, as if we had been to take up our dwelling, and intended to people the island.

At the same time, others of our men began to look out for goats, for it may be believed we all longed for a meal of fresh meat. They were a little too hasty at their work at first, for firing among the first goats they came at, when there were but a few men together, they frighted all the creatures, and they ran all away into holes, and among the rocks and places where we could not find them; so that for that day they made little of it. However, sending for more firemen, they made a shift to bring in seventeen goats the same day, whereof we sent five on board the ships, and feasted with the rest on shore. But the next day the men went to work in another manner, and with better conduct; for as we had hands enough, and fire-arms enough, they spread themselves so far, that they, as it were, surrounded the creatures; and so driving them out of their fastnesses and retreats, they had no occasion to shoot, for the goats could not get from them, and they took them everywhere with their hands, except some of the old he-goats, which were so surly, that they would stand at bay and rise at them, and would not be taken; and these, as being old also, and as they thought, good for nothing, they let go.

In short, so many of our men went on shore, and these divided themselves into so many little parties, and plyed their work so hard, and had such good luck, that I told them it looked as if they had made a general massacre of the goats, rather than a hunting.

Our men also might be said not to refresh themselves, but to feast themselves here with fresh provisions; for though we stayed but thirteen days, yet we killed three hundred and seventy goats, and our men who were on board were very merrily employed, most assuredly, for they might be said to do very little but roast and stew, and broil and fry, from morning to night. It was indeed an exceeding good supply to them, for they had been extremely fatigued with the last part of their voyage, and had tasted of no fresh provisions for six weeks before.

This made them hunt the goats with the more eagerness, and indeed, they surrounded them so dexterously, and followed them so nimbly, that notwithstanding the difficulties of the rocks, yet the goats could hardly ever escape them. Here our men found also very good fish, and some few tortoises, or turtles, as the seamen call them, but they valued them not, when they had such plenty of venison; also they found some very good herbs in the island, which they boiled with the goats' flesh, and which made their broth very savoury and comfortable, and withal very healing, and good against the scurvy, which in those climates Englishmen are very subject to.

We were now come to the month of April, 1715, having spent almost eight months in this trafficking wandering voyage from Manilla hither. And whoever shall follow the same, or a like track, if ever such a thing shall happen, will do well to make a year of it, and may find it very well worth while.

I doubt not but there are many undiscovered parts of land to the west, and to the south also, of the first shore, of which I mentioned, that we stayed trafficking for little bits of gold. And though it is true that such traffick, as I have given an account of, is very advantageous in itself, and worth while to look for, especially after having had a good market for an out-ward-bound European cargo, according to the pattern of ours, at the Philippines, and which, by the way, they need not miss, I say, as this trade for gold would be well worth while, so had we gone the best way, and taken a course more to the south from Manilla, not going away east to the Ladrones, we should certainly have fallen in with a country, from the coast of New Guinea, where we might have found plenty of spices, as well as of gold.

For why may we not be allowed to suppose that the country on the same continent, and in the same latitude, should produce the same growth? Especially considering them situated, as it may be called, in the neighbourhood of one another.

Had we then proceeded this way, no question but we might have fixed on some place for a settlement, either English or French, whence a correspondence being established with Europe, either by Cape Horn east, or the Cape De Bona Esperance west, as we had thought fit, they might have found as great a production of the nutmegs and the cloves as at Banda and Ternate, or have made those productions have been planted there for the future, where no doubt they would grow and thrive as well as they do now in the Moluccas.

But we spun out too much time for the business we did; and though we might, as above, discover new places, and get very well too, yet we did nothing in comparison of what we might be supposed to have done, had we made the discovery more our business.

I cannot doubt, also, but that when we stood away south it was too late; for had we stood into the latitude of 67° at first, as we did afterwards, I have good reason to believe that those islands which we call the Moluccas, and which lie so thick and for so great an extent, go on yet farther, and it is scarce to be imagined that they break off just with Gilloto.

This I call a mistake in me, namely, that I stood away east from the Philippines to the Ladrones, before I had gone any length to the south.

But to come to the course set down in this work, namely, south-east and by east from the Ladrones, the places I have taken notice of, as these do not, in my opinion, appear to be inconsiderable and of no value, so had we searched farther into them, I doubt not but there are greater things to be discovered, and perhaps a much greater extent of land also. For as I have but just, as it were, described the shell, having made no search for the kernel, it is more than probable, that within the country there might be greater discoveries made, of immense value too. For even, as I observed several times, whenever we found any people who had gold, and asked them, as well as by signs we could make them understand, they always pointed to the rivers and the mountains which lay farther up the country, and which we never made any discovery of, having little in our view but the getting what little share of gold the poor people had about them. Whereas had we taken possession of the place, and left a number of men sufficient to support themselves, in making a farther search, I cannot doubt but there must be a great deal of that of which the inactive Indians had gotten but a little.

Nor had we one skilful man among us to view the face of the earth, and see what treasure of choice vegetables might be there. We had indeed six very good surgeons, and one of them, whom we took in among the Madagascar men, was a man of great reading and judgment; but he acknowledged he had no skill in botanics, having never made it his study.

But to say the truth, our doctors themselves (so we call the surgeons at sea) were so taken up in their traffick for gold, that they had no leisure to think of anything else. They did indeed pick up some shells, and some strange figured skeletons of fishes and small beasts, and other things, which they esteemed as rarities; but they never went a simpling, as we call it, or to inquire what the earth brought forth that was rare, and not to be found anywhere else.

I think, likewise, it is worth observing, how the people we met with, where it is probable no ships, much less European ships, had ever been, and where they had never conversed with enemies, or with nations accustomed to steal and plunder; I say, the people who lived thus, had no fire, no rage in their looks, no jealous fears of strangers doing them harm, and consequently no desire to do harm to others. They had bows and arrows indeed, but it was rather to kill the deer and fowls, and to provide themselves with food, than to offend their enemies, for they had none.

When, therefore, removing from thence, we came to other and different nations, who were ravenous and mischievous, treacherous and fierce, we concluded they had conversed with other nations, either by going to them, or their vessels coming there. And to confirm me in this opinion, I found these fierce false Indians had canoes and boats, some of one kind, and some of another, by which perhaps, they conversed with the islands or other nations near them, and that they also received ships and vessels from other nations, by which they had several occasions to be upon their guard, and learned the treacherous and cruel parts from others which nature gave them no ideas of before.

As the natives of these places were tractable and courteous, so they would be made easily subservient and assistant to any European nation that would come to make settlements among them, especially if those European nations treated them with humanity and courtesy; for I have made it a general observation, concerning the natural disposition of all the savage nations that ever I met with, that if they are once but really obliged they will always be very faithful.

But it is our people, I mean the Europeans, who, by breaking faith with them, teach them ingratitude, and inure them to treat their new comers with breach of faith, and with cruelty and barbarity. If you once win them by kindness, and doing them good, I mean at first, before they are taught to be rogues by example, they will generally be honest, and be kind also, to the uttermost of their power.

It is to be observed, that it has been the opinion of all the sailors who have navigated those parts of the world, that farther south there are great tracts of undiscovered land; and some have told us they have seen them, and have called them by such and such name, as, particularly, the Isles of Solomon, of which yet we can read of nobody that ever went on shore on them, or that could give any account of them, except such as are romantic, and not to be depended upon.

But what has been the reason why we have hitherto had nothing but guesses made at those things, and that all that has been said of such lands has been imperfect? The reason, if I may speak my opinion, has been, because it is such a prodigious run from the coast of America to the islands of the Ladrones, that the few people who have performed it never durst venture to go out of the way of the trade-winds, lest they should not be able to subsist for want of water and provisions; and this is particularly the case in the voyage from the coast of America only.

Whereas, to go the way which I have marked out, had we seen a necessity, and that there was no land to be found to the south of the tropic for a supply of provisions and fresh water, it is evident we could have gone back again, from one place to another, and have been constantly supplied; and this makes it certain also, that it cannot be reasonably undertaken by a ship going from the east, I mean the coast of America, to the west; but, from the west, viz., the Spice Islands to America west, it may be adventured with ease, as I have shown.

It is true, that William Cornelius Van Schouten and Francis le Maire, who first found the passage into the South Sea by Cape Horn, and not to pass the Straits of Magellan, I say, they did keep to the southward of the tropic, and pass in part the same way I have here given an account of, as by their journals, which I have by me at this time, is apparent.

And it is as true also, that they did meet with many islands and unknown shores in those seas, where they got refreshment, especially fresh water: perhaps some of the places were the same I have described in this voyage, but why they never pursued that discovery, or marked those islands and places they got refreshments at, so that others in quest of business might have touched at them and have received the like benefit, that I can give no account of.

I cannot help being of opinion, let our map makers place them where they will, that those islands where we so successfully fished for oysters, or rather for pearl, are the same which the ancient geographers have called Solomon's Islands; and though they are so far south, the riches of them may not be the less, nor are they more out of the way. On the contrary, they lie directly in the track which our navigators would take, if they thought fit, either to go or come between Europe and the East Indies, seeing they that come about Cape Horn seldom go less south than the latitude of 63 or 64°; and these islands, as I have said, lie in the latitude of 40 to 48° south, and extend themselves near one hundred and sixty leagues in breadth from north to south.

Without doubt those islands would make a very noble settlement, in order to victual and relieve the European merchants in so long a run as they have to make; and when this trade came to be more frequented, the calling of those ships there would enrich the islands, as the English at St. Helena are enriched by the refreshing which the East India ships find that meet there.