Daniel Defoe

“ Of this famous place I could not but observe, on this occasion, that, as ignorance gave it its first fame and made it for so many ages the most eminent part of the globe, as it was the only passage by which the whole world could be surrounded, and that it was to every man's honour that had passed it; so now it is come to the full end or period of its fame, and will in all probability never have the honour to have any ship, vessel, or boat, go through it more, while the world remains, unless, which is very improbable, that part of the world should come to be fully inhabited. ”

“ It was our comfort that the wind came off shore, for it blew at south, and shifting between the south, south-east, and south-west, with such excessive gusts, and so furious, and withal, not only by squalls and sudden flaws, but a settled terrible tempest, that had it been from off sea, as it was off shore, we must have perished, there had been no remedy, and even as it was, we rode in great danger. ”

“ Last of all, we had this assurance, that, the dangers of the seas excepted, we were sure of an outlet before us, if we went forward, or behind us, if we were forced back; and, having a rich cargo, if we were to do nothing but go home, we should be able to give our employers such an account of ourselves, as that they would be very far from being losers by the voyage; but that, if we reached safe the coast of New Spain, and met with an open commerce there, as we expected, we should perhaps make the most prosperous voyage that was ever made round the globe before. ”

“ So soon as men have acted the sailor, they come ashore and write books of their voyage, not only to make a great noise of what they have done themselves, but pretending to show the way to others to come after them, they set up for teachers and chart makers to posterity. Though most of them have had this misfortune, that whatever success they have had in the voyage, they have had very little in the relation; except it be to tell us, that a seaman when he comes to the press, is pretty much out of his element, and a very good sailor may make but a very indifferent author. ”

“ Such is the account of Sir John Narborough's Voyage to the South Seas, adorned with I know not how many charts of the famous Strait of Magellan, a place only now famous for showing the ignorance of Sir John Narborough, and a great many wise gentlemen before him, and for being a passage they had no need to have troubled themselves with, and which nobody will ever go through anymore. ”

“ When he came to them, he told them, the captain was willing to do all the justice possible to his men, and to use them, on all occasions, with equity and kindness; that I had ordered him to inquire calmly what it was had moved them to these disorders, and what it was which they had been made to believe was doing, that they could enter into measures so destructive to themselves, and to those who had intrusted them all with the ship and cargo; for that, in a voyage, every foremast-man, in his degree, is trusted with the safety of the whole ship. ”

“ After this discourse was over, I asked him what he inferred from it, as to the wealth of the country not being discovered? He answered, It was evident that it was for want of people that the wealth of the country lay hid; that there was infinitely more lay uninquired after than had yet been known; that there were several mountains in Peru equally rich in silver with that of Potosi; and, as for Chili, says he, and the country where we live, there is more gold at this time in the mountains of the Andes, and more easy to come at, than in all the world besides. ”

“ Captain Merlotte smiled at that, and told him, he was not afraid to put him on board his own ship, and fight for her again, and that, if he did so, he was sure he could not escape him; the Spanish captain smiled too, and told him he should see, if he did, that he knew the way to heaven from the bottom of the sea as well as any other road, and that men of courage were never at a loss to conquer their enemy one way or other ”

“ These cataracts made the river perfectly useless to them for above twenty miles, and it was impossible to drag their canoes that length over land; so, in short, they unloaded them, and, for their own satisfaction, they turned one, the biggest of them, adrift, and let it go to the first cataract, placing themselves so beyond that they might see it come down, which they did, and had the vexation of seeing it dashed all to pieces on the rocks below. ”

“ When our bargain was made, and the mate had related all the particulars of the conference he had had with the gunner, we came to talk of the people who were to go with us: the gunner told us that we might indeed have good reason to suspect a gang of men who had made themselves infamous all over the world by so many piracies and wicked actions; but, if I would put so much confidence in him, he would assure me, that, as he should have the power in his hands to pick and choose his men, so he would answer body for body for the fidelity of all the men he should choose ”

“ Our people went quite in with the shore, where they found several men and women crowded together to look at us. When our men came close to the land they hung out a white flag, but the wild people understood nothing of the meaning of it, but stood looking and amazed, and we have great reason to believe that they never had seen any ship or bark of any nation before. We found on our landing, no boats or sails, or anything they had to make use of on the water; but some days after we saw several small canoes, with three or four men in each. ”

“ I was now got in the latitude of fifteen degrees and a half south of the line, and began to think of standing in for the shore; when I ordered the second mate, who lay in irons in the brigantine, to be brought on board the great ship, and to be called up into the great cabin. He came in great concern, though he was of himself a very bold and resolute fellow, yet, as he made no doubt that he was sent for to execution, he appeared thoroughly softened, and quite another man than he was before. ”

“ I could not be without a great many anxious thoughts upon our coming into this island; for I knew very well that there was a gang of desperate rogues here, especially on the northern coast, who had been famous for their piracies; and I did not know but that they might be either strong enough as pirates to take us, or rogues enough to entice a great many of my men to run away; so I resolved neither to come near enough the shore to be surprised, nor to suffer any of my men to go on shore, such excepted as I could be very secure of. ”

“ Accordingly, two of our boats, with about thirty men in both of them, went on shore on the east side of the creek or harbour where our ship lay.
They found the country looked wild and savage; but, though they could find no houses, or speak with the inhabitants, they saw their footsteps and their seats where they had sat down under some trees; and after wandering about a little, they saw people, both men and women, at a distance; but they ran away from our men, at first sight, like frightened deer; nor could they make any signal to them to be understood ”

“ Among all the islands in this part of the world, that is to say, from the Philippines eastward, of which there are an infinite number, we never came near any but we found ourselves surrounded with canoes and a variety of boats, bringing off to us cocoa-nuts, plantains, roots, and greens, to traffic for such things as they could get; and that in such numbers, we were tired with them, and sometimes alarmed, and obliged to fire at them. But here, though we saw great numbers of people at a distance from the shore, yet we saw not one boat or bark, nor anything else upon the water. ”

“ There was as stout a company of bold, young brisk fellows of them, as ever went upon any expedition, fifty-three in number; among them a surgeon and his mate, very skilful and honest men both of them, a trumpeter and a drummer, three ship-carpenters, a cook, who was also a butcher by trade, and a barber, two shoemakers who had been soldiers among the pirates, a smith, and a tailor of the same, so that they wanted no mechanics, whatever might happen to them. ”

“ I cannot help being of opinion, let our map makers place them where they will, that those islands where we so successfully fished for oysters, or rather for pearl, are the same which the ancient geographers have called Solomon's Islands; and though they are so far south, the riches of them may not be the less, nor are they more out of the way. On the contrary, they lie directly in the track which our navigators would take, if they thought fit, either to go or come between Europe and the East Indies, seeing they that come about Cape Horn seldom go less south than the latitude of 63 or 64° ”

“ The person who was principally concerned in the adventure was a man not only of great wealth, but of great importance; he was particularly addicted to what we call new discoveries, and it was indeed upon his genius to such things, that the first thought of the voyage was founded. This gentleman told me, that he had already sent one ship fully equipped and furnished for a new attempt upon the North-West or North-East passages, which had been so often in vain tried by former navigators ”

“ We stayed three days longer than we appointed, and hearing nothing amiss from them, we were satisfied that all was right with them; so we put to sea, standing off to the west, till we were out of sight of the shore, and then we stood away due south, with a fresh gale at north-west-by-west, and fair weather, though the wind chopped about soon after, and we had calms and hot weather that did us no good, but made our men sick and lazy. ”

“ There was another reason for our keeping in this latitude till we came to the Ladrones; namely, that all the southern side of that part of the way, between the Philippines and the Ladrones, is so full of islands, that, unless we had been provided with very good pilots, it would have been extremely hazardous; and, add to this, that, beyond these islands south, is no passage; the land, which they call Nova Guinea, lying away east and east-south-east, farther than has yet been discovered; so that it is not yet known whether that country be an island or the continent. ”

“ Our people set up their tents and beds abroad as before; but my patron told me the Chilian would take it very ill if he and I did not take up our lodging in his house, and we had two rooms provided, very magnificent in their way.
The mattress we lay on had a large canopy over it, spread like the crown of a tent, and covered with a large piece of cotton, white as milk, and which came round every way like a curtain, so that if it had been in the open field it would have been a complete covering. ”

“ Nay, says he, with some passion, there is more gold every year washed down out of the Andes of Chili into the sea, and lost there, than all the riches that go from New Spain to Europe in twenty years amount to. ”

“ On the contrary, the people in the southern unknown countries, being first of all very numerous, and living in a temperate climate, which requires clothing, and having no manufactures, or materials for manufactures, of their own, would consequently take off a very great quantity of English woollen manufactures, especially when civilized by our dwelling among them, and taught the manner of clothing themselves for their ease and convenience; and, in return for these manufactures, it is evident we should have gold in specie, and perhaps spices, the best merchandise and return in the world. ”

“ This is an excellent country for feeding and breeding of sheep and horses, the grass being short, but very sweet and good on the plains, and very long and rich near the fresh rivers, and were it cultivated and stocked with cattle, would without doubt produce excellent kinds of all sorts of cattle; nor could it fail producing excellent corn, as well wheat as barley and oats; and as for peas, they grow wild all over the country, and nourish an infinite number of birds resembling pigeons, which fly in flights so great, that they seem in the air like clouds at a great distance. ”