A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 785 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 785 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07.

For most port of the 13th we ran E.S.E. along the coast, within two leagues of the land, finding the shore all covered with tall trees to the water’s edge, and great rocks hard by the beach, on which the billows continually broke in white foam, so high that the surf might easily be seen at four leagues distance, and in such a manner that no boat could possibly go to land.  At noon our masters and pilots took the altitude of the sun, by which they judged that we were 24 leagues beyond the river Sestro to the eastwards, wherefore we hauled in towards the shore and came to anchor within two English miles of the land in 15 fathoms, the water being so smooth that we might have rode with a hawser.  We employed the afternoon to rig out our boat with a sail, for the purpose of sending her along shore in search of a place to take in water, as we could not go back to the river Sestro, because the wind is always contrary and the current sets continually to the eastwards.  The 14th we weighed anchor and plied up along the coast to the W.N.W. sending our boats close in shore to seek a watering-place, which they found about noon.  At this time, being far out to sea, we fell in with several small long and narrow boats or canoes of the natives, in each of which was one man only.  We gave them bread, which they accepted and eat readily.  About 4 P.M. our boats came off to us with fresh water; and at night we anchored off the mouth of a river.  The 15th we weighed and stood near the shore, sounding all the way, finding sometimes a rocky bottom, at other times good ground, and never less than seven fathoms.  Finally, we cast anchor within an English mile of the shore, in seven and a half fathoms, directly over against the mouth of the river, and then sent our boats for water, which they got very good after rowing a mile up the river.  This river, called St Vincent in the chart, is by estimation about eight leagues beyond the river Sestro, but is so hard to find that a boat may be within half a mile of it without being able to discover any river, as a ledge of rocks of greater extent than its breadth lies directly before its mouth, so that the boats had to go a considerable way between that ledge and the shore before coming to its mouth.  When once in, it is a great river, having several others that fall into it.  The entrance is somewhat difficult, as the surf is rather high, but after getting in it is as smooth as the Thames.[231] Upon this river, near the sea, the inhabitants are tall large men, going entirely naked, except a clout about a quarter of a yard long before their middle, made of the bark of trees, yet resembling cloth, as the bark used for this purpose can be spun like flax.  Some also wear a similar cloth on their heads, painted with sundry colours, but most of them go bareheaded, having their heads clipped and shorn in sundry ways, and most of them have their bodies punctured or slashed in various figures like a leathern jerkin.  The men and women go so much alike, that a woman is only to be known from a man by her breasts, which are mostly long and hanging down like the udder of a milch goat.

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.