off two of the natives perfidiously.  Aris Clawson, the junior merchant or supercargo, went accordingly on shore, where he drove a small trade for lemons and bananas, in exchange for glass beads.  In the mean time some of the natives came off to the ships, bringing with them an interpreter who spoke many languages.  They here very conveniently furnished themselves with fresh water, which poured down in great abundance from a very high hill, so that they had only to place their casks under the waterfall.  There were here whole woods of lemon-trees, and lemons were so cheap that they might have had a thousand for a few beads, and ten thousand for a few common knives; so that they easily procured as many as they wished, and each man had 150 for sea store.  The 3d September they found a vast shoal of fish, resembling a shoemaker’s knife.

They left Sierra Leona on the 4th September; and on the 5th October, being in lat 4 deg. 27’ S. they were astonished by receiving a violent stroke on the bottom of one of the ships, though no rock appeared to be in the way.  While forming conjectures on the occasion of this shock, the sea all about the ship began to change colour, appearing as if some great fountain of blood had opened into it.  This sudden alteration of the water seemed not less wonderful than the striking of the ship; but the cause of both was not discovered till after their arrival in Port Desire, when the ship was laid on shore to clean her bottom, when they found a large horn, of a substance resembling ivory, sticking fast in the bottom.  It was entirely firm and solid, without any internal cavity, and had pierced through three very stout planks, grazing one of the ribs of the ship, and stuck at least a foot deep in the wood, leaving about as much on the outside, up to the place where it broke off.[104]

[Footnote 104:  This must have been a Narvai, or Narwhal, the Monodon Monoceros, Licorne, or Unicornu Marinum, of naturalists, called likewise the Unicorn Fish, or Sea Unicorn.—­E.]

On the 25th of October, when no person knew whereabouts they were except Schouten, the company was informed that the design of the voyage was to endeavour to discover a new southern passage into the South Sea; and the people appeared well pleased, expecting to discover some new golden country to make amends for all their trouble and danger.  The 26th they were in lat. 6 deg. 25’ S. and continued their course mostly to the south all the rest of that month, till they were in lat 10 deg. 30’ S. The 1st September they had the sun at noon to the north; and in the afternoon of the 3d they had sight of the isle of Ascension, in 20 deg.  S. otherwise called the island of Martin Vaz, where the compass was observed to vary 12 deg. to the east of north.  The 21st, in lat. 38 deg.  S. the compass varied 17 deg. in the same eastern direction.  The 6th December, they got sight of the mainland of South America, appearing rather flat, and of a white colour, and quickly after