A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed BeforeDefoe, Daniel
General
A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories; Voyages around the world -- Fiction
However, they brought it so far to pass, that, having wounded several
young bulls very much, after they had run roaring about with the hurt,
they lay down and bled so, as that it was likely they would bleed to
death, as several of them really did; but the surgeon observing two of
them to be low enough that he might go to them, and do what he would
with them, he soon stopped the bleeding, and in a word, healed the
wounds. All the while they were under cure he caused grass and boughs of
trees to be brought to them for food, and in four or five days the
creatures were very well; then he caused them to be hampered with ropes,
and tied together, so that they could neither fight with their heads, or
run away with their heels; and having thus brought them to a place just
by their tent, he caused them to be kept so hungry, and almost starved,
that, when meat was carried them, they were so tame and thankful, that
at last, they would eat out of his hand, and stretch out their heads for
it, and when they were let a little looser, would follow him about for a
handful of grass, like a dog for a bone.
When he had brought them thus to hand, he, by degrees, loaded them, and
taught them to carry; and if they were unruly, as they were at first, he
would load them with more than they could well carry, and make them
stand under that load two or three hours, and then come himself and
bring them meat, and take the load off; and thus in a few days they knew
him so well, that they would let him do anything with them.
When our people came to decamp, they tied them both together, with such
ropes as they had, and made them carry a very great weight. They tried
the same experiment with two more, but they failed; one died, and the
other proved untractable, sullen, and outrageous.
The men had now lain here twelve days, having plenty of provision, in
which time, the weather proving fair, the land waters ran off, and the
rivers came to their old channels, clear and calm. The men would gladly
have gone back to the sands and flat shore of the lake, or to some other
part, to look for gold; but that was impracticable now, so they marched
on, and in about two days they found the first river seemed to turn so
much to the south, that they thought it would carry them too far out of
their way, for their orders were to keep about the latitude of 40 to 50°
as is said before, so they resolved to get over the first river as soon
as they could; they had not gone far, but they found the river so
shallow, that they easily forded it, bulls and all, and, being safely
landed, they travelled across the country to the great river, which they
found also very low, though not like to be forded as the other was.
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