A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed BeforeDefoe, Daniel
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A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories; Voyages around the world -- Fiction
However, this dumb manner of conversing with them we did not like,
neither was it to any purpose to us; and I was resolved, if possible, to
know something more of them than we could get thus; so I ordered out our
pinnace with six oars, and as many other men well armed, to row among
them; and, if possible, to take some of them and bring them on board.
They went off, but the six-oar pinnace, though a very nimble boat, could
not row so fast as they could swim; for, if pulling with all their
might, they came near one of them, immediately, like dog and duck, they
would dive, and come up again thirty or forty yards off; so that our men
did not know which way to row after them; however, at last getting among
the thickest of them, they got hold of two, and with some difficulty
dragged them in; but think of our surprise, to find they were not men,
but both young women. However, they were brought on board naked as they
were.
When they came on board, I ordered they should have two pieces of linen
wrapped round their waists to cover them, which they seemed well pleased
with. We gave them also several strings of beads, and our men tied them
about their necks, and about their arms like bracelets, and they were
wonderfully delighted with their ornaments. Others of our men gave each
of them a pair of scissors, with needles and some thread, and threading
the needles, showed them how to sew with them; we also gave them food,
and each of them a dram of arrack, and made signs to know of them where
they lived; they pointed up to the river, but we could by no means
understand them.
When we had dressed them up thus with necklaces, and bracelets, and
linen, we brought them up upon the deck, and made them call to their
country folk, and let them see how well they were used, and the girls
beckoned them to come on board, but they would not venture.
However, as I thought the discovery we were to make, would be something
the easier on account of the usage of these two young women; for they
were not, as we guessed, above twenty or two-and-twenty years of age; we
resolved that the boat should go on, as we intended, up the river; and
that, as the two women pointed that way, we should carry them along with
us.
Accordingly we sent two shallops, or large boats, which carried together
sixty men, all well armed. We gave them store of beads and knives and
scissors, and such baubles with them, with hatchets and nails, and
hooks, looking-glasses, and the like; and we built up the sides and
sterns of the boats, and covered them with boards, to keep off arrows
and darts, if they should find occasion, so that they looked like London
barges. In this posture, as soon as the tide or flood was made up, our
men went away, carrying a drum and a trumpet in each boat; and each boat
had also two patereroes, or small cannon, fixed on the gunnel near the
bow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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