The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 11Hakluyt, Richard
History
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 11
Hakluyt, Richard
Discoveries in geography -- English; Voyages and travels
After that we were with a small gale of winde runne past that vttermost
head-land, we sawe a great red cliffe, which the Master againe iudged to be
the towne of S. Iohns, and then wee tooke our boate with marchandize, and
went thither, and when we came thither, we perceiued that there was a towne
vpon the toppe of the hill, and so wee went toward it, and when we were
hard by it, the people of the towne came together a great sort of them, and
waued vs to come in, with a peece of cloth, and so we went into a very
faire Bay, which lieth to the Eastward of the cliffe, whereupon the towne
standeth, and being within the cliffe, wee let fall our grapnell, and after
that we had taried there a good space, they sent a boate aboord of vs, to
shewe vs that they had golde, and they shewed us a peece about halfe a
crowne weight, and required to know our measure, and our weight, that they
might shewe their Captaine thereof: and wee gaue them a measure of two
elles, and a waight of two Angels to shew vnto him, which they tooke, and
went on shoare, and shewed it vnto their Captaine, and then they brought vs
a measure of two elles, one quarter and a halfe, and one Crusado-weight of
gold, making vs signes that so much they would giue for the like measure,
and lesse they would not haue. After this, we taried there about an houre,
and when we sawe that they would doe no otherwise, and withall vnderstood,
that all the best places were before vs, wee departed to our shippes and
wayed, and ranne along the shoare, and went before with our boate, and
hauing sailed about a league, we came to a point where there lay foorth a
ledge of rockes, like to the others before spoken of, and being past that
people, the Master spied a place which hee saide plainely was the towne of
Don Iohn: and the night was come vpon vs, so that we could not well
discerne it, but we ankered as neere vnto the place as we could.
[Sidenote: The towne of Don Iohn.] The fift day in the morning we perceiued
it to be the same towne in deede, and we manned our boates and went
thither, and because that the last yeere the Portugals at that place tooke
away a man from them, and after shot at them with great bases, and did
beate them from the place, we let fall our grapnel almost a base shot off
the shoare, and there we lay about two houres, and no boats came to vs.
Then certaine of our men with the Hindes boate went into the Bay which
lieth to the Eastward of the towne, and within that Bay they found a goodly
fresh riuer, and afterwards they came and waued to vs also to come in,
because they perceiued the Negroes to come downe to that place, which we
did: and immediately the Negroes came to vs, and made vs signes that they
had golde, but none of them would come aboord our boates, neither could we
perceiue any boates that they had to come withall, so that we iudged that
the Portugals had spoiled their boates, because we saw halfe of their towne
destroyed.
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