Book III. Travels in L VDIA . 207 



monthly cuftoms are upon 'em, they happen to make water, and that an Euro- 

 pean chances to fet his feet upon it, it caufes an immediate Head-ach and Fea- 

 ver, which many times turns to the Plague. 



CHAP. XXVII. 



The Holland Fleet arrives at St. Helens. The defcripionof the IJland. 



HAving ftaid two and twenty days at the Cafe of good Hope, feeing that the 

 Wind was favourable, we weigh'd, and fteer'd for St. Helens. When we 

 were under Sail, the iMariners cry'd out, they would fleep till they came into 

 St. Helens Road. For the wind is very conftant, and carries you in fixteen or 

 eighreen days to the Road of the Ifland. All the trouble that our Mariners 

 had,was that fourteen days after our departure from the Cape 3 they were often fore'd 

 to the Top- Malt head, upon difcovery of the Ifland j for as foon as you difcover 

 the Ifland, the Pilot muft take care to fteer to the North-fide of the Ifland, be- 

 caufe there is no calling Anchor but on that fide, and that very near the more 

 too j by reafon of the deepnefs of the water j for if the Anchors come Mot to 

 take hold, the current of the water and the wind carries the Ship quite out of 

 the Road, which there is no recovering again, becaufe the wind never changes. 

 So foon as the Ships came to an Anchor, part of the Seamen were fent afhore 

 to get wild Hogs, of which there are great plenty j and to gather Sorrel, which 

 grows in great abundance ; and indeed they not only fend the Seamen, but all the 

 Pigs, Sheep, Geefe,Ducks,and Pullets aboard, to feed upon that Sorrel, which pur- 

 ges them in fuch a manner, that in a few days they became fo fat,that by that time 

 we came to Holland they were hardly to be eaten. That Sorrel has the fame 

 operation upon the men, who boiling their wild S wines flefli, Rice, and Sorrel to- 

 gether, make thereof a kind of Potage fo excellent, that it keeps their bodies 

 open by an infenfible purgation. 



There are two places upon the Goaft of St. Helens where Ships may come to 

 an Anchor. But the beft is that where we lay, by reafon that ground is very 

 sood, and for that the water that falls from the Mountain is the beft in the Ifland. 

 In thfs part of the Ifland there is no plain, for the Mountain defcends to the very 

 fhoreof the Sea. 



It is not fo good anchoring in the other Road ; but there is a very nandiome 

 plain where you may fow or plant whatever you pfeafe. There are great ftore 

 of Citrons, and fome Oranges, which the Portugals had formerly planted there. 

 For that Nation has that vertue, that wherever they come, they make the place 

 the better for thofe that come after them -, whereas the Hollanders endeavour to 

 deftroy all things wherever they fet footing. I confefs the Commanders arc nor 

 of that humour, but the Sea-men and Souldiers, who cry one to another we (hall 

 never come hither any more, and out of grecdinefs will cut down a whole tree 

 inftead of cathering the fruit. - . 



Some days after there arriv'd a Portuguese Vefiel from Guiny, full of Slaves 

 which were bound for the Mines of Peru. Some of the Hollanders that underftood 

 the language of the Negro's, told 'em how miferably they would be us d, and 

 thereupon the next night two hundred and fifty of them tfirew themfelves into the 

 Sea. And indeed it is a miferable flavery ; for fometimes after they have mind; in 

 fome places for fome 4ays together, the Earth being loofe, falls down and kills 

 fourornvehunder'datati^ie. Befides, thatafter they have been mining awhile, 

 their Faces, their Eye* and their Skins change colour ^fjI^^S^ 

 vapours that arife from thofe concavities ; nor could they fubfift in thofe places, 

 but for the quantity of ftrong Water which they give, both to the men and wo- 

 men There are fome that are made free by their Matters, who labour however 

 for their living j but between Saturday night and Monday morning they fpend all 

 their weeks wages in ftrong Water, which is very dear » fo that they always live 



^BeSeady to depart the Ifland of St. /fc/^ the Admiral call'd a Council to 

 adv to which^y to fteer. The greateft parrwere for iteming more to the Weft, 



