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
As the king's robe, or whatever it may be called, was longer, for it
came down to his waist, so it had a great deal more gold about it, and
larger pieces than that the queen wore. When their majesties had thus
put on their robes, it may be guessed how glorious they looked, but
especially the queen, who being a most charming beautiful creature, as
said before, was much more so when glistening thus with gold. Our men
looked very narrowly to observe whether there were any diamonds or
pearls among their finery, but they could not perceive any.
The king and queen now withdrew for that evening, but their people did
not leave our men so, for they thronged about them; and some brought
them jars of the white liquor, some brought them roots, others fruits,
some one thing, some another; and our men gave every one of them some
small matter or other in proportion to what they brought. At last, there
came four particular tall lusty men, with bows and arrows; but before
they came close up to our men, they laid down their bows and arrows on
the ground, and came forward with all the tokens of friendship they were
able to make.
They had two youths with them, each of whom led a tame fawn of pretty
large growth, and when the men came up, they gave the two fawns to our
men; who, in return, gave each of them a knife, and some strings of
beads, and such toys as they had.
Our men observed, that all these men had little bits of gold, some of
one shape, and some of another, hanging at their ears; and when our men
came to be familiar, they asked them as well as they could, where they
found that stuff? and they made signs to the sand in the river, and then
pointed towards that part of the country where our ships lay, which
signified to our men that the gold was, most of it, where we lay, not
there where the king and queen resided. Nay, when our men pointed again
to the river where they were, and went and took up some of the sand, as
if they would look for gold in it, they made signs of laughing at it,
and that there was nothing to be found there, but that it lay all the
other way.
And yet two or three of the men, who, when the tide was out, went up the
bank of the river, two or three miles upon the sands, peeping and trying
the sands as they went, they found three or four little bits of pure
gold, though not bigger than pins heads; but no doubt farther up the
country they might have found more.
These four men seeing how fond our people were of the gold, made signs
they could fetch gold to them if they would give them such things as
they liked; and ours again told them they should have anything they
pleased; and, as earnest, gave them some pieces of iron and bits of
glass of small value, both which they were much delighted with.
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