A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
into the shape of an axe, and agreed to sell it for a piece of cloth:
The cloth was handed over the ship's side, but his honour immediately
put off his canoe with the axe. We had recourse to our usual expedient,
and fired a musket-ball over the canoe, upon which it put back to the
ship, and the piece of cloth was returned; all the boats then went
ashore, without offering any further intercourse.
At noon, the main land extended from S. by E. to N.W. by W. a remarkable
point of land bearing W. distant four or five miles; at three we passed
it, and I gave it the name of Cape Bret, in honour of Sir Piercy. The
land of this Cape is considerably higher than any part of the adjacent
coast: At the point of it is a high round hillock, and N.E. by N. at the
distance of about a mile, is a small high island or rock, which, like
several that have already been described, was perforated quite through,
so as to appear like the arch of a bridge. This Cape, or at least some
part of it, is by the natives called Motugogogo, and it lies in
latitude 35° 10' 30" S. longitude 185° 25' W. On the west side of it is
a large and pretty deep bay, lying in S.W. by W. in which there appeared
to be several small islands: The point that forms the N.W. entrance lies
W. 1/4 N. at the distance of three or four leagues from Cape Bret, and I
distinguished it by the name of Point Pococke. On the west side of the
bay we saw several villages, both upon islands and the main, and several
very large canoes came off to us, full of people, who made a better
appearance than any we had seen yet: They were all stout and well-made;
their hair, which was black, was tied up in a bunch on the crown of
their heads, and stuck with white feathers. In each of the canoes were
two or three chiefs, whose habits were of the best sort of cloth, and
covered with dog's skin, so as to make an agreeable appearance: Most of
these people were marked with the amoco, like those who had been
alongside of us before: Their manner of trading was also equally
fraudulent; and the officers neglecting either to punish or fright them,
one of the midshipmen, who had been defrauded in his bargain, had
recourse for revenge to an expedient which was equally ludicrous and
severe: He got a fishing line, and when the man who had cheated him was
close under the ship's side in his canoe, he heaved the lead with so
good an aim that the hook caught him by the backside; he then pulled the
line, and the man holding back, the hook broke in the shank, and the
beard was left sticking in the flesh.
During the course of this day, though we did not range more than six or
eight leagues of the coast, we had alongside and on board the ship
between four and five hundred of the natives, which is a proof that this
part of the country is well inhabited.
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