1767. November. we were fuddenly furprised by a loud noife on that fide of the thore which was a-breast of the ship; it was made by a great number of human voices, and very much refembled the war-whoop of the American Savages, a hideous fhout which they give at the moment of their attack, and in which all who have heard it agree there is fomething inexpreffibly terrifying and horrid. As I was now farther convinced that it was necessary to difpofe of our little force to the greatest advantage, Tuesday 3. we began the next day by getting the guns up from the hold, and making the neceffary repairs to our rigging. At eleven o'clock, not having feen any thing of the people, who had endeavoured to terrify us by their yells in the night, I fent the long-boat on shore for more water; but, as I thought it probable that they might have concealed themfelves in the woods, I kept the cutter manned and armed, with the Lieutenant on board, that immediate fuccour might be fent to the waterers, if any danger fhould threaten them. It foon appeared that my conjectures were well founded, for our people had no fooner left their boat, than a number of armed men rushed out of the woods, one of whom held up fomewhat white, which I took to be a fignal of peace. Upon this occafion I was again fenfible of the mortifying deficiency in the fhip's equipment, which I had fo often experienced before. I had no white flag on board, and therefore, as the best expedient in my power, I ordered the Lieutenant, whom I fent on thore in the cutter, to display one of my table-cloths; as foon as the officer landed, the standard bearer and another came down to him unarmed, and received him with great appearance of friendship. One of them addreffed him in Dutch, which none of our people understood; he then spoke a few words in Spanish, in which one of the perfons in the cutter was a confiderable proficient: the Indian however fpoke it fo very imperfectly, that it was with great difficulty, and by the help of many figns, he made himself understood; poffibly if any of our people had spoken Dutch, he might have been found equally deficient in that language. He asked for the Captain however by the name of the skipper, and enquired whether we were Hollanders? whether our fhip was intended for merchandize or for war? how many guns and men 1 men fhe carried? and whether she had been, or was going to Batavia? When we had fatisfied him in all thefe particulars, he said that we should go to the town, and that he would introduce us to the Governor, whom he distinguished by the title of Raja. The Lieutenant then told him, that we intended to go to the town, but that we were in immediate want of water, and therefore defired permiffion to fill some casks; he also requested that the people who were armed with bows and arrows might be ordered to a greater distance. With both these requifitions the Indian, who feemed to be invested with confiderable authority, complied; and as he seemed to take particular notice of a filk handkerchief which the Lieutenant had tied round his neck, it was immediately prefented to him; in return for which he defired him to accept a kind of cravat, made of coarse callico, which was tied round his own, his drefs being fomewhat after the Dutch fashion. After this interchange of cravats, he enquired of the officer whether the ship was furnished with any articles for trade: to which he answered that fhe was fufficiently furnished to trade for provisions, but nothing more: the Chief replied, that whatever we wanted we should have. After this conference, which I confidered as an earnest of every advantage which this place could afford us, the boats returned on board laden with water, and we went cheerfully on with our business on board the fhip. In about two hours, however, we faw, with equal furprize and concern, many hundreds of armed men, pofting themselves in parties at different places among the trees, upon the beach, a-breast of the fhip; their weapons were mufquets, bows and arrows, long spikes or fpears, broadfwords, a kind of hanger called a crefs, and targets: we obferved alfo, that they hauled a canoe, which lay under a fhed upon the beach, up into the woods. These were not friendly appearances, and they were fucceeded by others that were ftill more hoftile; for these people spent all the remainder of the day in entering and rushing out of the woods, as if they had been making fallies to attack an enemy; fometimes fhooting their arrows, and throwing their lances into the water towards the fhip; and fometimes lifting their targets, and brandishing their fwords at us in a menacing 1767. November. menacing manner. In the mean time we were not idle on board: we got up our guns, repaired our rigging, and put every thing in order before the evening, and then, being ready to fail, I determined, if poffible, to get another conference with the people on fhore, and learn the reafon of so fudden and unaccountable a change of behaviour. The Lieutenant therefore was again difpatched, and as a testimony that our difpofition was still peaceable, the table cloth was again displayed as a flag of truce. I had the precaution, however, to order the boat to a part of the beach which was clear of wood, that the people on board might not be liable to mifchief from enemies whom they could not fee; I also ordered that nobody should go on fhore. When the Indians faw the boat come to the beach, and observed that no body landed, one of them came out of the wood with a bow and arrow in his hand, and made figns for the boat to come to the place where he stood. This the officer very prudently declined, as he would then have been within bow-fhot of an ambuscade, and after waiting fome time, and finding that a conference would be procured upon no other terms, he returned back to the fhip. It was certainly in my power to have deftroyed many of thefe unfriendly people, by firing my great guns into the wood, but it would have anfwered no good purpose: we could not afterwards have procured wood and water here without risking the lofs of our own people, and I still hoped that refreshment might be procured upon friendly terms at the town, which, now I was in a condition to defend myself against a fudden affault, I refolved to vifit. The next morning therefore, as foon as it was light, I failed from this place, which I called DECEITFUL BAY, with a light land breeze, and between ten and eleven o'clock we got off the bay or nook, at the battom of which our boats had discovered the town or fort. It happened, however, that juft at this time the weather became thick, with heavy rain, and it began to blow hard from a quarter which made the land here a lee shore; this obliged me to stand off, and having no time to lose, I ftood away to the weftward that I might reach Batavia before the season was past. I fhall I fhall now give a more particular account of our navigating the fea that washes the coasts of this ifland, the rather as Dampier's description is in feveral particulars erroneous. Having feen the north-east part of the island on the 26th of October, without certainly knowing whether it was Mindanao or Saint John's, we got nearer to it the next day, and made what we knew to be Saint Auguftina, the fouth eastermoft part of the island, which rifes in little hummocks, that run down to a low point at the water's edge; it bears N. 40 E. at the diftance of two and twenty leagues from a little ifland, which is diftinguished from the other islands that lie off the fouthermoft point of Mindanao by a hill or hummock, and which for that reafon I called HUMMOCK ISLAND. All this land is very high, one ridge of mountains rifing behind another, fo that at a great distance it appears not like one ifland but several. After our first discovery of the island, we kept turning along the east fide from the northward to Cape Saint Auguftina, nearly S. by W. W. and N. by E. E. for about twenty leagues. The wind was to the fouthward along the fhore, and as we approached the land, we flood in for an opening which had the appearance of a good bay, where we intended to anchor; but we found that it was too deep for our purpose, and that fome fhoals rendered the entrance of it dangerous. To this bay, which lies about eight or ten leagues N. by E. from Cape Saint Augustina, the south-east extremity of the island, I gave the name of DISAPPOINTMENT BAY. When we were in the offing standing in for this Bay, we obferved a large hummock, which had the appearance of an island, but which I believe to be a peninfula, joined by a low ifthmus to the main; this hummock. formed the northermost part of the entrance, and another high bluff point oppofite to it formed the fouther moft part; between thefe two points are the fhoals that have been mentioned; and feveral fmall islands, only one of which can be feen till they are approached very near. On this part of the coast we faw no figns of inhabitants; the land is of a ftupendous height, with mountains piled upon mountains till the fummits are hidden in the clouds: in the offing therefore it is almoft' VOL. I. impoffible Y 1767. November. November. 1767 impoffible to estimate, its diftance, for what appear then to be fmall hillocks, juft emerging from the water, in comparison of the mountains that are feen over them, fwell into high hills as they are approached, and the distance is found to be thrice as much as it was imagined; perhaps this will account for the land here being fo ill laid down, and in fituations so very different as it appears to be in all our English charts. We found here a strong current fetting to the fouthward along the fhore, as the land trended. The high land that is to the north of Saint Auguftina, becomes gradually lower towards the Cape, a low flat point in which it terminates, and off which, at a very little diftance, lie two large rocks. Its latitude is 6° 15′ N. and the longitude by account 127° 20′ E. From this cape the land trends away W. and W. by S. for fix or seven leagues, and then turns up to the N. W. making a very deep bay, the bottom of which, as we crossed it from Saint Augustina, to the high land on the other fide, which is not less than twelve leagues, we could not fee. The coaft on the farther fide of it, coming up from the bottom, trends firft to the S. and S. S. W. and then to the S. W. by W. towards the fouth extremity of the ifland. Off this fouthern extremity, which Dampier calls the fouth-east by mistake, the fouth-eaft being Saint Auguftina, at the diftance of five, fix, and feven leagues, lie ten or twelve islands, though Dampier fays there are only two, and that together they are about five leagues round. The islands that I faw could not be contained in a circuit of less than 15 leagues, and from the number of boats that I faw among them I imagine they are well inhabited. The largest of these lies to the S. W. of the others, and makes in a remarkable peak, fo that it is first seen in coming in with the land, and is indeed visible at a very great distance. Its latitude I make 5° 24' N. and its longitude by account 126° 37' E. Hummock This ifland which I called HUMMOCK ISLAND, bears from Saint Auguftina S. 40 W. at the distance of between twenty and two and twenty leagues: and from the fame Cape, the fouthermoft part of the island Mindanao bears S. W. & W. at the diftance of between twenty-one and twenty-three leagues. This fouthermost extremity Ifland. |