PKOVINCETOWN. 
225 
stones,” — which might promise some mineral matter 
in the bottom.” The 10th, they were over a bank 
which they thought to be near the western end of St. 
John’s Island, and • saw schools of fish. The 12th, 
they say, “continually passed fleeting by us sea-oare, 
which seemed to have their movable course towards 
the northeast.” On the 13th, they observed “ great 
beds of weeds, much wood, and divers things else float¬ 
ing by,” and “ had smelling of the shore much as from 
the southern Cape and Andalusia in Spain.” On Fri¬ 
day, the 14th, early in the morning they descried land 
on the north,' in the latitude of forty-three degrees, ap¬ 
parently some part of the coast of Maine. William¬ 
son (History of Maine) says it certainly could not 
have been south of the central Isle of Shoals. Bel¬ 
knap inclines to think it the south side of Cape Ann. 
Standing fair along by the shore, about twelve o’clock 
the same day, they came to anchor and were visited by 
eight savages, who came off to them “ in a Biscay shallop, 
with sail and oars,” — “ an iron grapple, and a kettle 
of copper.” These they at first mistook for “ Chris¬ 
tians distressed.” One of them was “ apparelled with 
a waistcoat and breeches of black serge, made after our 
sea-fashion, hoes and shoes on his feet; all the rest 
(saving one that had a pair of breeches of blue cloth) 
were naked.” They appeared to have had dealings with 
“ some Basques of St. John de Luz, and to understand 
much more than we,” say the English, “for want of 
language, could comprehend.” But they soon “ set sail 
westward, leaving them and their coast.” (This was a 
remarkable discovery for discoverers.) 
“ The 15th day,” writes Gabriel Archer, “ we had 
again sight of the land, which made ahead, being as we 
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