leagues; then wee came to a point with an iland by it, but soe neare the maine that wee could not goe within it a league; to the westward of this pointe is a showle a league from the maine.
From this pointe the land runs more easterly and makes a deepe bay with many ilands in it; the sixth day wee came into this bay, and anchored about foare miles to the eastward of the forementioned pointe, in eighteen fathome water, a mile from the shoare, good clean sand.
I drew a drafte of this land and the bay where we road, but at the Necquebar,[1] when we oversett our prows, I lost it and some others that were not in my book; those that I had placed in my book were all preserved, but all wett.
Wee sent our boate ashoare to speak with the natives, but they would not abide our comeing, soe wee spent three dayes in seekeing their houses, being in hopes to allure them with toyes to a comerce.
For wee begun to be scarce of provision, and did not question but these people could relieve us; but after all our search neare the sea side and in the country wee found ourselves disapointed, for the people of this country have noe houses nor any thing like a house, neither have they any sorte of graine or pulse; flesh they have not, nor any sorte of cattle, not soe much as catt or dog, for, indeed, they have noe occasion of such creatures unless to eat them, for of that food which they have they leave no fragments. They have noe sorte of fowle, neither tame nor wild, for the latter I saw very few in the country, neither did wee see any kind of wilde beast in the country, but the track of one.
I believe there are not any of the natives in the country farr from the sea, for they gett their living out of sea without nett or hooke; but they build wares with stones cross
- ↑ Nicobar. The circumstance of their canoe upsetting off this island, and their books and drafts being all wetted and some of them lost, is also mentioned in the printed editions of Dampier's voyage.
