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
But let that be how it will, it is certainly a country yet unfrequented
by any of the Christian part of mankind, and perhaps, may ever be so,
and yet may be as rich as any other part of the world yet discovered.
The mountains in most of the islands, as well as of the mainland in
those parts, abounding in gold or silver, and, no question, as well
worth searching after as the coast of Guinea; where, though the quantity
they find is considerable, yet it is at this time sought after by so
many, and the negroes taught so well how to value it, that but a little
is brought away at a time, and so much given for it, that, computing the
charge of the voyage, is oftentimes more than it is worth.
But though it is true that what gold is found here is a great way off,
yet, I am persuaded such quantities are to be had, and the price given
for it so very trifling, that it would be well worth searching for.
I reckon, that, including the gold our shallop brought, and what we got
on shore where we lay, we brought away about twenty-four pounds weight
of gold; the expense of which we could not value at above ten or eleven
pounds in England, put it all together; and reckoning for all the
provisions we got there, which supplied us for twenty days after we came
away.
For while our shallop was making her visit thus to the royal family,
&c., as is related, our men were not idle on shore, but, partly by trade
with the natives, and by washing the sands in the small rivers, we got
such a quantity of gold as well satisfied us for the stay we made.
We had been about eighteen days here when our shallop returned, and we
stayed a week more trafficking with the people; and I am persuaded, if
we had been in the mind to have settled there and stayed till now, we
should have been very welcome to the people. We saw neither horse or
cow, mule, ass, dog, or cat, or any of our European animals, excepting
that our men shot some wild ducks and widgeons, exactly the same which
we see in England, and very fat and good, but much easier to shoot than
in England, having never been acquainted with the flash and noise of
guns as ours have been; we also found a sort of partridges in the
country not much unlike our own, and a great many of the whistling
plover, the same with ours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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