A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 03: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 03: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
On Monday the 4th of November, the admiral sailed northwards past another
large island, which he named St Mary of _Guadalupe_, partly by reason of
his own especial devotion to the holy Virgin, and because he had made a
promise to the friars of that monastery to name some island after their
house. Before they came to it, and about two leagues distance from its
coast, they discovered a very high rock ending in a point, whence issued a
stream of water as thick as a large barrel, which made so great a noise in
its fall as to be heard on board the ships; yet many affirmed that it was
only a white vein in the rock, the water was so white and frothy by reason
of its rapid fall. Going on shore to view a kind of town, they found no
parson there except some children, all the people having fled into the
woods. To the arms of these children they tied some baubles, to allure
their fathers when they returned.
In the houses our people found some geese like those of Spain, and
abundance of parrots as large as common cocks, having red, green, blue,
and white feathers. They also found pompions, and a sort of fruit
resembling our green pine apples, but much larger, which were full of a
solid fruit like melons, but much sweeter both in taste and smell, and far
better than those which are brought up by art. This fruit grew on long
stalks, like lilies or aloes, wild about the fields. They also saw other
sorts of fruits and herbs different from ours. In the houses there were
beds or hammocks made of cotton nets, with bows and arrows, and other
articles; but our people took none of these things away, that the Indians
might be the less afraid of the Christians. What they most admired and
wondered at was that they found an iron pan in one of the houses; though I
am disposed to believe that the rocks and fire-stones of the country being
of the colour of bright iron, a person of indifferent judgment may have
taken it for iron without sufficient examination; for there never was any
iron found afterwards among these people, and I find no authority from the
admiral for this incident on his own knowledge, and as he used to write
down daily whatever happened and was reported to him, he may have set down
this among other particulars related by those who had been on shore.[6]
Even if it actually were iron, it may be thus accounted for: The natives
of Guadaloup, being Caribs, were accustomed to make plundering expeditions
as far as Hispaniola, and might have procured that pan from the Christians
or the natives of that island. It is likewise possible that they might
have carried off some of the iron from the wreck of the admirals former
ship; or some of that wreck containing iron might have been drifted by the
winds and currents from Hispaniola. Be this as it may, the people neither
took away the pan nor any thing else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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