A true & exact history of the island of BarbadosLigon, Richard
History
A true & exact history of the island of Barbados
Ligon, Richard
Barbados -- Description and travel; Plants -- Barbados; Sugar -- Manufacture and refining -- Barbados
done, and so left him to his own enquiries. I say this much to let
you see that some of these people are capable of learning Arts.
Another of another kinde of speculation I found; but more ingenious
then he: and this man with three or foure more, were to attend mee
into the woods, to cut Church wayes, for I was imployed sometimes
upon publique works; and those men were excellent Axe men, and
because there were many gullies in the way, which were impassable,
and by that means I was compell’d to make traverses, up and down in
the wood; and was by that in danger to misse of the poynt, to which I
was to make my passage to the Church, and therefore was faine to take
a Compasse with me, which was a Circumferenter, to make my traverses
the more exact, and indeed without which, it could not be done,
setting up the Circumferenter, and observing the Needle: This _Negre
Sambo_ comes to me, and seeing the needle wag, desired to know the
reason of its stirring, and whether it were alive: I told him no, but
it stood upon a poynt, and for a while it would stir, but by and by
stand still, which he observ’d and found it to be true.
The next question was, why it stood one way, & would not remove to
any other poynt, I told him that it would stand no way but North
and South, and upon that shew’d him the foure Cardinall poynts of
the compass, East, West, North, South, which he presently learnt by
heart, and promis’d me never to forget it. His last question was, why
it would stand North, I gave this reason, because of the huge Rocks
of Loadstone that were in the North part of the world, which had a
quality to draw Iron to it; and this Needle being of Iron, and toucht
with a Loadstone, it would alwaies stand that way.
This point of Philosophy was a little too hard for him, and so he
stood in a strange muse; which to put him out of, I bad him reach
his ax, and put it neer to the Compasse, and remove it about; and
as he did so, the Needle turned with it, which put him in the
greatest admiration that ever I saw a man, and so quite gave over his
questions, and desired me, that he might be made a Christian; for, he
thought to be a Christian, was to be endued with all those knowledges
he wanted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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