Chap. II. to the EAST-INDIES. 
Porcupines, Oftriches* and other Animals, unknown to 
me. In this Day’s Journey I faw one of the Natives* 
they having retired for fear of us. 
6. Thofe who lived towards the Point of the Cape, are 
the moil miferable Savages yet difcovered, for they nei- 
ther fow nor cultivate the Ground •, neither do they fifh, 
or venture themfelves two Steps into the Sea. They are 
of a very low Stature, efpecially their Women, and are 
fo meagre that they always look as if they were dying for 
Hunger. Their common Food is fome white Roots, 
about the Bignefs of Chefnuts, which have a Stalk like a 
Leek, only a little narrower, and not indented, that bear 
a white Flower. If they find any Cockle-fifh,or W hales, or 
any other dead Fifii upon the Shore, tho’ never fo much 
putrified, they throw them upon a Fire, and then feed hear- 
tily upon them * nay, when the very Skins, Heads* and 
Entrails of the Sea-Bears and Penguins, which our Men 
fed upon, were thrown out of the Tents, and had lain for 
feven or eight Days, till their Stench obliged our Men to 
remove their Tents, and feared the Wolves and other 
Wild-Beafts from touching them : Even then, I fay, the 
Savages would take them up* and after having put them 
under the Alhes and fqueezed them between two Stones, 
would eat up every Bit of them. 
When they meet an European , the firft Thing they do 
is, to fhew their Stomach, which they throw into their 
Body, fo that makes a Hollow, or great Pit upon their 
Breaft. They have Wars one with another, probably up- 
on account of their Cattle, which they do not eat, unlefs 
thefe are ready to die through Leannels, Age, or any other 
Accident. They cover their Privities with Sheeps Tails, and 
-wear the Skin of a Sheep, or fome other Animal, over one 
Shoulder, like a Scarf. The better fort have dried Tripe 
about their Necks, upon which there hangs a little Knife 
fhaped like a Launce, in a Wooden- fheath •, and this I take 
to be the Inftrument with which they cut off one of their 
Tefticles at ten or twelve Years of Age, that being a 
Cuftom among them, perhaps to qualify themfelves for 
running, in which Exercife they outdo all the Nations 
that ever I faw. 
Some hang upon their Necks a Plate of Copper, as 
thin as a Teftoon, and about a Hand long, and four or 
live Inches broad * others wear Bracelets, being Pieces of 
Copper or Iron, with a Hole in the Middle. Thofe who 
feem to have fome Command over the reft, have com- 
monly a Stick in their Hands, with a Fox’s Tail at the 
End of it. I could not perceive any Religion among 
them. They marry indeed, and dance, and their com- 
mon Salutation to us is dancing to a Song* which, from 
the Beginning to the End, is nothing elfe but Hautitou. 
Their Arms are an Affagay, with a weak Sort of a Bow 
and a Quiver, which they hide under fome Bullies when 
they come to our Tents. They are very apt to fteal any 
thing of Iron or Copper, but Linnen or Cloaths they do 
not covet. 
They are Negroes, and have frizzled Hair, as well as 
thofe in Guinea , but they wear no Ornament upon it. 
They have no Cottages to live in that I could perceive ; 
but in the Night-Time they fiielter themfelves, with their 
Wives and Children, with Bufhes, and have fome Skins, 
ftretched like an Umbrella, upon two Sticks laid a-crofs, 
with one in the Middle to fallen it in the Ground, under 
which they lie buried in the Sand quite up to their Belly. 
They are altogether ignorant of Agriculture and the mak- 
ing of Canoos * whereas could they but tack fome Pieces 
of Wood together to convey them to the Hands juft by 
the Continent, they would find vaft Quantities of Pen- 
guins and Sea-Bears (which to them are molt delicious 
Food) not only for their own Suftenance, but for Sale 
among their Neighbours. 
This Table-Bay lies in 34 0 Lat. the Needle varying i° 
45 # N. W. Its Air is very wholefome. Sometimes you 
may treat here with the Natives for Beef and Mutton, but 
that is very uncertain. It is a fecure Road to anchor in, 
and has about fix or eight Fathom Water : There is more 
Rain and Wind in the Bay than alhore, for the high 
Mountains flop the Clouds and Vapours, which being dri- 
ven by the Wind, break and fall down in Hurricanes upon 
Numb, 49. 
the Bay. The Height of the Table-Mountain, from the Sea- 
Side to the Top, is 1 3 50 Foot perpendicular. 
7. Some of our Men going alhore, happened to light 
upon a great Stone, with two little Packs of pitched Can- 
vas, underneath which we afterwards found fome Dutch 
Letters. When we opened them, we found, firft, a Piece 
of pitched Canvas, then a Plate of Lead wrapped round 
the Packet* under that two Pieces of frelh Cloth, then a 
Piece of red Frize* all wrapped round a Bag of coarfe 
Linnen, in which were the Letters very fafe and dry. 
They contained an Account of feveral Ships that had 
palfed by that Way, particularly of an Englijh Advice- 
Boat that was gone to England to acquaint the Company 
with the Injuries the Dutch had done them in the Eajt- 
Indies. They alfo gave Notice to all Ships that palled 
that Way* to take care of the Natives who had murdered 
feveral of their Crew, and Hole fome of their Water-calks. 
Farther, they contained Advice that the Dutch had be- 
fieged Bantam with thirty-five Ships, and that the En- 
glijh were forced to abandon it for want of Provifions *, 
that the King of Bantam and the Dutch committed feve- 
ral Adis of Hoftilities, and many other Things too long 
to be inferred. 
Having read this Letter, I was at a Lofs whether I 
fhould go to Bantam or not, for I readily imagined that 
Bantam being blocked up by the Dutch , they would not 
fuffer us to enter, and far lefs to traffick there, lince they 
always endeavoured there to keep the Trade out of our 
Hands : Befides, I was apprehenfive they might carry tile 
Place, in regard that Prince Mataran , who called himfelf 
Emperor of all Java, and alledges, that the King of Ban- 
tam revolted from him, would readily join with the Dutch 
in reducing the Rebel King. Upon thefe Confiderations 
I refolved to fteer my Courfe to the Coaft of Cormandel , 
to put off fome Goods that were proper for that Coaft, and 
buy up others that fhould be faleable at Achen , and upon 
the Coafts of Sumatra and Java * and, a fter all, to take in 
at Java a Ship’s Loading of Pepper * after which, if the 
Siege continued, to leave there a Fadlory with the Pinnace to 
trade up and down the Coaft * bur, if the Siege was raifed, 
I defigned not to fettle any Factory at Achen , but to fend 
one of the Ships back to trance , and the other, together 
with the Pinnace to Bantam , where we might get two or 
thre hundred per Gent upon the Coaft-goods, and there to 
load the Ship, and leave a Fadtory, together with the 
Pinnace. 
In the mean time I called to mind that the Diredlors in- 
tended I fhould go ftrait to Bantam , and fend at leaft one 
of their Ships back to France that Year, which 1 could not 
do if I touched upon the Coaft of Coromandel: Befides, if 
the Siege fhould happen to be raifed, I was apprehenfive 
the Company would blame me for not following their Or- 
ders * but even that Confideration was counterpoifcd by 
this, that I could not at any rate fend back one of their 
Ships that Year, fince I could not reach the Coaft of Sunda 
till Anguft, nor get out from thence till October or Novem- 
ber, by reafon of contrary Winds, and upon that Score I 
fhould be obliged to fpend the whole Year without doino- 
any thing, and eat up all my Provifions, which in that 
Country are fo fcarce, that the Englijh are forced to fpread 
themfelves along the Coaft to be fupplied * not to mention 
that I fhould be expofed to the Difcretion of the Dutch, 
who never meaned us well. Having maturely weighed all 
thefe Confiderations, I afked Advice of the principal De- 
puties, fome of which faid they would fubmit to my Judg- 
ment, and others told me, that fince I had a pofitive Com- 
mifiion for Bantam , and fince Bantam was a Place of too 
great Importance to the Dutch to be long at Variance with 
the King, I had beft fteer my Courfe thither. Thefe dif- 
ferent Opinions put me upon another Expedient of fendino- 
the Hope loBantam, and giving her Captain, Mr. Grave , an 
ample Commiffion. 
8. On the 3d of April we weighed Anchor, and beino- 
becalmed, about two Leagues oft from the Bay, were dri” 
ven by the great Waves coming from the South, and the 
Tides running North upon a little Hand, and caft Anchor 
within a League of it in twenty Fathom Water, the Ground 
being muddy Sand, ft he Ifle lay from us North one Quar- 
8 X ter 
