We went on shore here peaceably, for we neither saw any people nor the appearance of any, but a charming pleasant valley, of about ten or eleven miles long and five or six miles broad; and then it was surrounded with mountains which reached the full length, running parallel with the valley, and closing it into the sea at both ends, so that it was a natural park, having the sea on the north side, and the mountains in a semicircle round all the rest of it. These hills were so high, and the ways so untrod and so steep, that our men, who were curious enough to have climbed to the top of them, could find no way that was practicable to get up, and so after two or three attempts gave it over.

In this vale we found abundance of deer, and abundance of the same kind of sheep which I mentioned lately. We killed as many of both as we had occasion for; and finding nothing here worth our staying any longer for, except that we saw something like wild rice growing here, we weighed after three days, and stood away still to the south.

We had not sailed above two days with little wind and an easy sail, but we perceived this also was an island, though it must be a large one; for by our own account we sailed near a hundred and fifty miles along the shore of it, and we found the south part a flat pleasant country enough, and our men said they saw people upon it on the south side, but we went not on shore there any more.

Steering due south from hence in quest of the main land we went on eleven days more, and saw nothing significant; and upon a fair observation, I found we were in the latitude of seven and forty degrees and eight minutes south; then I altered my course a little to the eastward, finding no land and the weather very cold, and going on with a fresh gale at S. S. W. for four days, we made land again; but it was now to the E.N.E., so that we were gotten as we may say beyond it. We fell in with this land in the evening, so that it was not perceived till we were within half a league of it, which very much alarmed us; the land being low, and having found our error, we brought to and stood off and on till morning, when we saw the shore lie as it were under our larboard-bow, within a mile and a quarter distance; the land low, but the sea deep, and soft ground. We came to an anchor immediately, and sent our shallops to sound the shore, who found very good riding in a little bay under the shelter of two points of land, one of which made a kind of nook, under which we lay secure from all winds that could blow, in seventeen fathom good ground. Here we had a good observation, and found ourselves in the latitude of fifty degrees twenty-one minutes. Our next work was to find water, and our boats going ashore found plenty of good water and some cattle, but told us they could give no account what they were or what they were like. In searching this coast we soon found this was an island also, about eleven leagues in length from N. W. to S. E., what breadth we could not tell. Our men also saw some signs of inhabitants; the next day six mon appeared at a distance, but would take notice of no signals, and fled as soon as our men advanced. Our people went up to the place where they lay

and found they had had a fire of some dry wood; that they had lain there as they supposed all night, though without covering; they found two pieces of old ragged skins of deer, which looked as if worn out by some that had used them for clothing; one piece of a skin of some other creature which had been rolled up into a cap for the head, and a couple of arrows of about four feet long, very thick, and made of a hard and heavy wood; so they must have very large and strong bows to shoot such arrows, and consequently must be men of an uncommon strength.

Our men wandered about the country here three or four days, with less caution than the nature of the thing required; for they were not among a people of an innocent, inoffensive temper here as before, but among a wild and untractable nation, that perhaps had never seen creatures in their own likeness before, and had no thoughts of themselves but of being killed and destroyed, and consequently had no thoughts of them they had seen but as of enemies, whom they must either destroy if they were able, or escape from them if they were not. However, we got no harm; neither would the natives ever appear to accept any kindnesses from us.

We had no business here after we found what sort of people they were who inhabited this place. So soon as we had taken in fresh water and catched some fish, of which we found good store in the harbour or bay where we rode, we prepared to be gone. Here we found the first oysters that we saw anywhere in the South Seas, and as our men found them but the day before we were to sail, they made great entreaty to me to let them stay one day to get a quantity on board; they being very refreshing as well as nourishing to our men.

But I was more easily prevailed with to stay, oyster that he happened to open a true oriental when Captain Merlotte brought me out of one pear!, so large and so fine, that I sold it since my return for three and fifty pounds.

After taking this oyster I ordered all our boats out a dredging, and in two days' time so great a quantity there was, that our men had taken above fifty bushels, most of them very large. But we were surprised you may be sure, when, at the opening all these oysters, we found not one pearl, small nor great, of any kind whatever; so we concluded that the other was a lucky hit only, and that perhaps there might not be any more of that kind in these seas.

While we were musing on the oddness of this accident, the boatswain of the Madagascar ship, whose boat's crew had brought in the great oyster in which the pearl was found, and who had been examining the matter, came and told me that it was true that their boat had brought in the oyster, and that it was before they went out a dredging in the offing; but that their boat took these oysters on the west side of the island, where they had been shoring as they call it, that is to say, coasting along the shore, to see if they could find anything worth their labour; but that afterwards the boats went a dredging in the mouth of the bay where we rode, and where finding good store of oysters they had gone no farther

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, something better, and the water about five or seven fathom 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 they promised, 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 3,217 pieces of eight.

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 whole three 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. Howvery fine ones; among the rest they had two. in ever they got a considerable quantity, and some 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 paid for them two hundred pieces of eight, but to make the proposal for them. I would have one and all they would not be paid, and would certainly have been much affronted 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 ship's 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 encour

agement 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 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 forty-nine to fifty; 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 to, nor could any creature reach to that particular spot of land under the pole, if such there should be, these lands being

surrounded with mountains of snow and frozen seas, which never thaw, and are utterly unpassa

When they had done this, I told them it was but meet that as they had made so good a pur-ble, either for ships or men. chase 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 should 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

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 cast, and so directly for the south part of America; but the wind now blowing fresh from the north-west, and good weather, I took the occasion, as a favourable

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 altered, and the weather grew milder; and here taking an obsrvation, I found myself in the latitude of fifty and a-half, and that our meridian distance from the Ladrones West was eighty-seven degrees, being almost one semi-diameter of the globe, so that I 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 N. by E., till by an observation, I found myself in forty-seven degrees seven minutes, 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.

summons, to keep still on southing as well as east, till we came into the latitude of 66, 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 not clothes sufficient for it. But they were brought to be content by force, for the wind continuing at N. and N.N. W. and blowing very hard, we were obliged to keep on our course farther south, indeed, than I ever intended, and one of our 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 the southerly is here, but it was attended with rain and snow, and both freezing violently. At length one of the 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 a-head, I bid wear the ship and put her about immediately, not doubting but instead of finding 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 stera. 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 put 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 sight of one another in those seas. However, being both to windward and within hearing of my guns, they took warn-gether it blew excessive hard, almost all at E., so ing, 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 great good-hap, also, that it was day when we escaped 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 S., 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 S. W., 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 N. E. and N. E. by N., 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

We found our distance from the shore not less very high; and our next business was to conthan twenty leagues, the mountains being so sider 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, call it which you please, in the latitude of forty degrees, so this Pacific, Quiet Sea, as they called it, showed we stood away to the north. The next day

us

proved the very extreme of a contrary dispoa very frowning rough countenance, and sition, for it blew a storm of wind at E. by S.. again for a day or two, and then for six days toand drove us off the coast again; but it abated

shore; and, besides, I found that the winds came that I found no possibility of getting into the off that mountainous country in squalls, and that the nearer we came to the hills the gusts were more violent; so I resolved to run for the island of Juan Fernandes, 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 nine degrees north, and back again by Cape Horn, in the latitude, perhaps, of sixty degrees south, and that we were now in forty degrees south; those three added to the run from Cape Horn home to England, made a prodigious length, as you will see by the following account, in which also the meridian distances are not at all reckoned, though those also are very great.

N. B. Only you must deduct 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 thirty degrees 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 seventy degrees, take it from the island of Juan Fernandes. 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.

At the same time others of our men began to look out for goats, for you may believe we all longed for a little 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 the creatures, and they ran 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, that 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 away from them, and they took them every where 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.

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 I assure you, 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 supply to them, for they had been extremely fatigued with the last part of their voyage, and had had no fresh provisions for six weeks before.

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 In short, so many of our men went on shore, as this; nor indeed was it reasonable to restrain and these divided themselves into so many little them, considering how we all might be supposed parties, and plied their work so hard, and had to stand in need of refreshment, and considering such good luck, that I told them it looked as if that here was no length of ground for the men they had made a general massacre of the goats to wander in, no liquors to come at to distract || rather than a hunting. 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 sweets of it. Upon these considerations, I say, our ships being well moored and riding safe, we restrained none of them except a due 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 meantime, 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 chillness 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 small, 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.

This made them hunt the goats with the more eagerness; and, indeed, they surrounded them s 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 goat's flesh, and which made their broth very savoury and comfortable, and witbal very healing and good against the scurvy, to which in the climates Englishmen are very subject.

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 de 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 s of the first shore of which I mentioned that we stayed trafficking for little bits of gold. And though it is true that such a 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 outward 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 E. to the Ladrones, we should certainly have fallen in with a country from the coast of Guinea, where we might have found plenty of spices as well as of gold.

For why should we not be allowed to suppose that the country on the saine 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 Bonne 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.

sufficient to support themselves in making a farther search, I cannot doubt but that there must be a great deal of that of which the inactive Indians had gotten but a little.

Nor had we any 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 very great reading and judgment, hut he acknowledged he had no skill in Botany, having never made it his study.

But to tell the truth, our doctors themselves, so we call the surgeons at sea, were so taken up in the traffic 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 they 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 food, than to

But we spun out too much time for the business; 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 sup-offend their enemies, for they had none. posed to do, had we made the discovery more our business.

I cannot doubt also but that when I stood away south it was too late, for had I stood into the latitude of sixty-seven at first as I 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.

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 confim 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 learnt the treacherous and cruel part 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 used them with humanity and courtesy; for I have made it a general observation concerning the natural dispositions of all the savage nations that ever I met with, that if they are once but really obliged, they will be always very faithful.

But to come to the course set down in this work, namely, S. E. and E. from the said 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 after the kernel, it is more than probable that within the country there might be greater discoveries made, of immense value too; But it is our people, I mean the Europeans, for even as I observed several times, whenever breaking faith with them that first teaches them we found any people that had gold, and asked ingratitude, and inures them to treat their new them as well as by signs we could make them comers with breach of faith, and with cruelty understand, they always pointed to the rivers and barbarity. If you once win them by kindand the mountains which lay farther up the ness and doing them good, I mean at first, before country, and which we never made any disco- they are taught to be rogues by example, they covery of, having little in our view but the get-will generally be honest and be kind also, to the ting what little share of gold the poor people uttermost of their power. had about them; whereas, had we taken a possession of the place, and left a number of men

But it is to be observed, that it has been the opinion of all the sailors who have navigated