[Footnote 163: Ningin, or Ginseng, is mentioned afterwards. The quicksilver rock has not been found.--E.] [Footnote 164: This height is probably an exaggeration, or was measured up its slope or talus, not ascertained perpendicularly.--E.] On the 16th of June, after a consultation, we set ashore ten of our condemned persons to remain at the Cape. These were John Crosse, Henry Cocket, Clerke, Brand, Booth, Hunyard, Brigs, Pets, Metcalf, and Skilligall. These men agreed that Crosse should be their chief, and we gave them weapons for their defence against men and wild beasts, together with provisions and clothes. The natives at this place are especially desirous of brass, and care not much for copper, chiefly wishing to have pieces of a foot square. They care little for iron hoops. We caught seven or eight hundred fishes in the river, at one haul of our seyne. The country people brought us for sale a root called _Ningin_,[165] of which we bought a handful for a small piece of copper an inch and half long. Our men got some of this, but not so good, this not being the season when it is ripe; for, when in full perfection, it is as tender and sweet as anise-seeds. [Footnote 165: A medicinal root, much prized at Japan, somewhat like a _skerrit_.--_Purch._ Probably that named Ginseng, in high repute in China and Japan for its fancied restorative and provocative powers, like the mandrake of holy writ, but deservedly despised in the Materia Medica of Europe. Its whole virtues lay in some supposed resemblance to the human figure, founded on the childish doctrine of signatures; whence, at one time, every thing yellow was considered specific against jaundice, with many other and similar absurd notions.--E.]