[Early Australian Voyages by John Pinkerton]@TWC D-Link bookEarly Australian Voyages CHAPTER XVII: COMES TO THE ISLANDS OF JAMA AND MOA 2/4
We purchased there, by way of exchange, six thousand cocoa-nuts, and a hundred bags of pysanghs or Indian figs.
When we first began to trade with these people, one of our seamen was wounded by an arrow that one of the natives let fly, either through malice or inadvertency.
We were at that very juncture endeavouring to bring our ships close to the shore, which so terrified these islanders, that they brought of their own accord on board us, the man who had shot the arrow and left him at our mercy.
We found them after this accident much more tractable than before in every respect.
Our sailors, therefore, pulled off the iron hoops from some of the old water- casks, stuck them into wooden handles, and filing them to an edge, sold these awkward knives to the inhabitants for their fruits. In all probability they had not forgot what happened to our people on July 16th, 1616, in the days of William Schovten: these people, it seems, treated him very ill; upon which James le Maire brought his ship close to the shore, and fired a broadside through the woods; the bullets, flying through the trees, struck the negroes with such a panic, that they fled in an instant up into the country, and durst not show their heads again till they had made full satisfaction for what was past, and thereby secured their safety for the time to come; and he traded with them afterwards very peaceably, and with mutual satisfaction. This account of our author's seems to have been taken upon memory, and is not very exact.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|