The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
In consequence of this treaty, the Dutch placed three persons upon the
island: Mr. Lange, his colleague, the native of Timor, the son of an
Indian woman by a Portuguese, and one Frederick Craig, the son of an
Indian woman by a Dutchman. Lange visits each of the Rajas once in two
months, when he makes the tour of the island, attended by fifty slaves
on horseback. He exhorts these Chiefs to plant, if it appears that they
have been remiss, and observes where the crops are got in, that he may
order sloops to fetch it; so that it passes immediately from the ground
to the Dutch store-houses at Timor. In these excursions he always
carries with him some bottles of arrack, which he finds of great use in
opening the hearts of the Rajas with whom he is to deal.
During the ten years that he had resided upon this island he had never
seen a European besides ourselves, except at the arrival of the Dutch
ship, which had sailed about two months before we arrived; and he is now
to be distinguished from the natives only by his colour and his dress,
for he sits upon the ground, chews his betele, and in every respect has
adopted their character and manners: he has married an Indian woman of
the island of Timor, who keeps his house after the fashion of her
country; and he gave that as a reason for not inviting us to visit him,
saying, that he could entertain us in no other manner than the Indians
had done; and he spoke no language readily but that of the country.
The office of Mr. Frederick Craig is to instruct the youth of the
country in reading and writing, and the principles of the Christian
religion; the Dutch having printed versions of the New Testament, a
catechism, and several other tracts, in the language of this and the
neighbouring islands. Dr. Solander, who was at his house, saw the books,
and the copy-books also, of his scholars, many of whom wrote a very fair
hand. He boasted that there were no less than six hundred Christians in
the township of Seba; but what the Dutch Christianity of these Indians
may be, it is not perhaps very easy to guess, for there is not a church,
nor even a priest, in the whole island.
While we were at this place, we made several enquiries concerning the
neighbouring islands, and the intelligence which we received is to the
following effect.
A small island to the westward of Savu, the name of which we did not
learn, produces nothing of any consequence but areca-nuts, of which the
Dutch receive annually the freight of two sloops, in return for presents
that they make to the islanders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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