A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: 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 12: 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 the 21st, the queen came again on board, and brought several large
hogs as a present, for which, as usual, she would accept of no return.
When she was about to leave the ship, she expressed a desire that I
should go on shore with her, to which I consented, taking several of the
officers with me. When we arrived at her house, she made us all sit
down, and taking off my hat, she tied to it a bunch or tuft of feathers
of various colours, such as I had seen no person on shore wear but
herself, which produced by no means a disagreeable effect. She also tied
round my hat, and the hats of those who were with me, wreaths of braided
or plaited hair, and gave us to understand that both the hair and
workmanship were her own: She also presented us with some matts, that
were very curiously wrought. In the evening she accompanied us back to
the beach, and when we were getting into the boat, she put on board a
fine large sow, big with young, and a great quantity of fruit. As we
were parting, I made signs that I should quit the island in seven days:
She immediately comprehended my meaning, and made signs that I should
stay twenty days; that I should go two days journey into the country,
stay there a few days, bring down plenty of hogs and poultry, and after
that leave the island. I again made signs, that I must go in seven days;
upon which she burst into tears, and it was not without great
difficulty that she was pacified.
The next morning, the gunner sent off no less than twenty hogs, with
great plenty of fruit. Our decks were now quite full of hogs and
poultry, of which we killed only the small ones, and kept the other for
sea-stores; we found, however, to our great mortification, that neither
the fowls nor the hogs could, without great difficulty, be brought to
eat any thing but fruit, which made it necessary to kill them faster
than we should otherwise have done; two, however, a boar and a sow, were
brought alive to England, of which I made a present to Mr Stephens,
secretary to the Admiralty; the sow afterwards died in pigging, but the
boar was alive at the date of this publication.
On the 23d, we had very heavy rain, with a storm of wind that blew down
several trees on shore, though very little of it was felt where the ship
lay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account