A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xiii Part 22

The boats in use here are a kind of proa.

This island was settled by the Portugueze almost as soon as they first found their way into this part of the ocean; but they were in a short time supplanted by the Dutch. The Dutch however did not take possession of it, but only sent sloops to trade with the natives, probably for provisions to support the inhabitants of their spice islands, who, applying themselves wholly to the cultivation of that important article of trade, and laying out all their ground in plantations, can breed few animals: Possibly their supplies by this occasional traffic were precarious; possibly they were jealous of being supplanted in their turn; but however that be, their East India Company, about ten years before, entered into a treaty with the rajas, by which the Company stipulated to furnish each of them with a certain quant.i.ty of silk, fine linen, cutlery ware, arrack, and other articles, every year; and the rajas engaged that neither they nor their subjects should trade with any person except the Company, without having first obtained their consent, and that they would admit a resident on behalf of the Company, to reside upon the island, and see that their part of the treaty was fulfilled: They also engaged to supply annually a certain quant.i.ty of rice, maize, and calevances. The maize and calevances are sent to Timor in sloops, which are kept there for that purpose, each of which is navigated by ten Indians; and the rice is fetched away annually by a ship which brings the Company's returns, and anchors alternately in each of the three bays. These returns are delivered to the rajas in the form of a present, and the cask of arrack they and their princ.i.p.al people never cease to drink, as long as a drop of it remains. In consequence of this treaty, the Dutch placed three persons upon the island: Mr Lange, his colleague, the native of Timor, the son of an Indian woman by a Portuguese, and one Frederick Craig, the son of an Indian woman by a Dutchman. Lange visited each of the rajas once in two months, when he made the tour of the island, attended by fifty slaves on horseback. He exhorted these chiefs to plant, if it appeared that they had been remiss, and observed where the crops were got in, that he might order sloops to fetch it; so that it pa.s.sed immediately from the ground to the Dutch store-houses at Timor. In these excursions he always carried with him some bottles of arrack, which he found of great use in opening the hearts of the rajas, with whom he had to deal.

During the ten years that he had resided upon this island he had never seen a European besides ourselves, except at the arrival of the Dutch ship, which had sailed about two months before we arrived; and he was to be distinguished from the natives only by his colour and his dress, for he sate upon the ground, chewed his betel, and in every respect adopted their character and manners: He had married an Indian woman of the island of Timor, who kept his house after the fashion of her country; and he gave that as a reason for not inviting us to visit him, saying, that he could entertain us in no other manner than the Indians had done, and he spoke no language readily but that of the country.

The office of Mr Frederick Craig was to instruct the youth of the country in reading and writing, and the principles of the Christian religion; the Dutch having printed versions of the New Testament, a catechism, and several other tracts, in the language of this and the neighbouring islands. Dr Solander, who was at his house, saw the books, and the copy-books also, of his scholars, many of whom wrote a very fair hand. He boasted that there were no less than six hundred Christians in the township of Seba; but what the Dutch Christianity of these Indians may be, it is not perhaps very easy to guess, for there was not a church, nor even a priest, in the whole island.

While we were at this place, we made several enquiries concerning the neighbouring islands, and the intelligence which we received is to the following effect:--

A small island to the westward of Savu, the name of which we did not learn, produces nothing of any consequence but areca-nuts, of which the Dutch receive annually the freight of two sloops, in return for presents that they make to the islanders.

Timor is the chief, and the Dutch residents on the other islands go thither once a-year to pa.s.s their accounts. The place was nearly in the same state as in Dampier's time, the Dutch having there a fort and storehouses; and by Lange's account we might there have been supplied with every necessary that we expected to procure at Batavia, salt provisions and arrack not excepted. But the Portuguese were still in possession of several towns on the north side of the island, particularly Laphao and Sesial.

About two years before our arrival, a French ship was wrecked upon the east coast of Timor; and after she had lain some days upon the shoal, a sudden gale broke her up at once, and drowned the captain, with the greatest part of the crew: Those who got ash.o.r.e, among whom was one of the lieutenants, made the best of their way to Concordia; they were four days upon the road, where they were obliged to leave part of their company through fatigue, and the rest, to the number of about eighty, arrived at the town. They were supplied with every necessary, and sent back to the wreck, with proper a.s.sistance, for recovering what could be fished up: They fortunately got up all their bullion, which was in chests, and several of their guns, which were very large. They then returned to the town, but their companions who had been left upon the road were missing, having, as it was supposed, been kept among the Indians, either by persuasion or force; for they are very desirous of having Europeans among them, to instruct them in the art of war. After a stay of more than two months at Concordia, their number was diminished nearly one half by sickness, in consequence of the fatigue and hardship which they had suffered by the shipwreck, and the survivors were sent in a small vessel to Europe.

Rotte was in much the same situation as Savu; a Dutch factor resided upon it to manage the natives, and look after its produce, which consists, among other articles, of sugar. Formerly it was made only by bruising the canes, and boiling the juice to a syrup, in the same manner as toddy; but great improvements have lately been made in preparing this valuable commodity. The three little islands called the Solars were also under the influence of the Dutch settlement at Concordia: They are flat and low, but abound with provisions of every kind, and the middlemost is said to have a good harbour for shipping. Ende, another little island to the westward of the Solars, was still in the hands of the Portuguese, who had a good town and harbour on the north-east corner of it called Larntuca: They had formerly an harbour on the south side of it, but that, being much inferior to Larntuca, had for some time been altogether neglected.

The inhabitants of each of these little islands speak a language peculiar to themselves, and it is an object of Dutch policy to prevent, as much as possible, their learning the language of each other. If they spoke a common language, they would learn, by a mutual intercourse with each other, to plant such things as would be of more value to themselves than their present produce, though of less advantage to the Dutch; but their languages being different, they can communicate no such knowledge to each other, and the Dutch secure to themselves the benefit of supplying their several necessities upon their own terms, which it is reasonable to suppose are not very moderate. It is probably with a view to this advantage that the Dutch never teach their own language to the natives of these islands, and have been at the expence of translating the Testament and catechisms into the different languages of each; for in proportion as Dutch had become the language of their religion, it would have become the common language of them all.[111]

[Footnote 111: The Dutch in all their transactions abroad seem to have invariably minded the _main chance, the one thing needful_; and to this consideration, as a fundamental principle in their character, they never scrupled to sacrifice every and any matter of religion, policy or humanity,--as if the love of money was (to reverse the language of an apostle) the root of all virtue, and alone worthy of cultivation in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of mankind. Whether their contempt of other people were greater than their indifference to the real interests which necessary connexion with them recommended, it is impossible to ascertain in some cases. It is on either supposition, to their indelible disgrace, that not the least pains were almost at any time bestowed by them, to acquire a knowledge of the languages of the people whom they had subdued. The Javanese, a language venerable from its antiquity, as certainly connected with the Sanscrit or sacred dialect of the Hindus, and important from its own excellence, as well as because spoken by some millions of people with whom the Dutch had very long intercourse, was so completely neglected, that till very lately not a single individual among them could write or converse in it. Of the Malayan tongue, which is quite distinct, though it has borrowed much from it, in consequence of certain commercial and even religious intercourse, a little knowledge had been acquired, and plainly for this reason, that without it no communication could have been carried on with the people inhabiting the sea-coasts and islands of the eastern parts of India. But even this knowledge, it is probable, extended no farther than to the names of substances imperatively alluring to the cupidity of Dutch merchants.

What, alas! could be expected of intellectual energy or enterprize, from men who had surrendered their souls to _mammon_, and whose only remaining care it was, to guzzle gin and devour enough of victuals?--E.]

To this account of Savu, I shall only add a small specimen of its language, by which it will appear to have some affinity with that of the South-Sea islands, many of the words being exactly the same, and the numbers manifestly derived from the same source.

_A man_, Momonne. _A sheep_, Doomba.

_A woman_, Mobunne. _A goat_, Kesavoo.

_The head_, Catoo. _A dog_, Guaca.

_The hair_, Row catoo. _A cat_, Maio.

_The eyes_, Matta. _A fowl_, Mannu.

_The eye_ } Rowna matta. _The tail_, Carow.

_lashes_, } _The beak_, Pangoutoo.

_The nose_, Sw.a.n.ga. _A fish_, Ica.

_The cheeks_, Cavaranga. _A turtle_, Unjoo.

_The ears_, Wodeeloo. _A cocoa-nut_, Nieu.

_The tongue_, Vaio. _Fan-palm_, Boaceree.

_The neck_, Lacoco. _Areca_, Calella.

_The b.r.e.a.s.t.s_, Soosoo. _Betele_, Canana.

_The nipples_, Caboo soosoo. _Lime_, Aou.

_The belly_, Dulloo. _A fish-hook_, Maanadoo.

_The navel_, a.s.soo. _Tattow, the_} Tata.

_The thighs_, Tooga. _marks on_ } _The knees_, Rootoo. _the skin_, } _The legs_, Baibo. _The sun_, Lodo.

_The feet_, Dunceala. _The moon_, Wurroo.

_The toes_, Kissovei yilla. _The sea_, Aida.s.see.

_The arms_, Camacoo. _Water_, Ailea.

_The hand_, Wulaba. _Fire_, Aee.

_A buffalo_, Cabaou. _To die_, Maate.

_A horse_, Djara. _To sleep_, Tabudge.

_A hog_, Vavee. _To rise_, Tateetoo.

One, Usse.

Two, Lhua.

Three, Tullu.

Four, Uppah.

Five, Lumme.

Six, Unna.

Seven, Pedu.

Eight, Arru.

Nine, Saou.

Ten, Singooroo.

Eleven Singurung usse.

20, Lhuangooroo.

100, Sing a.s.su.

1000, Setuppah.

10,000, Selacussa.

100,000, Serata.

1,000,000, Sereboo.

In this account of the island of Savu it must be remembered, that, except the facts in which we were parties, and the account of the objects which we had an opportunity to examine, the whole is founded merely upon the report of Mr Lange, upon whose authority alone therefore it most rest.

SECTION x.x.xVII.

_The Run from the Island of Savu to Batavia, and an Account of the Transactions there while the Ship was refitting_.

In the morning of Friday the 21st of September, 1770, we got under sail, and stood away to the westward, along the north side of the island of Savu, and of the smaller that lies to the westward of it, which at noon bore from us S.S.E. distant two leagues. At four o'clock in the afternoon, we discovered a small low island, bearing S.S.W. distant three leagues, which has no place in any chart now extant, at least in none that I have been able to procure: It lies in lat.i.tude 10 47' S., longitude 238 28' W.

At noon on the 22d, we were in lat.i.tude 11 10' S., longitude 240 38'

W. In the evening of the 23d, we found the variation of the needle to be 2 44' W.; as soon as we got clear of the islands we had constantly a swell from the southward, which I imagined was not caused by a wind blowing from that quarter, but by the sea being so determined by the position of the coast of New Holland.

At noon on the 26th, being in lat.i.tude 10 47' S., longitude 249 52'

W., we found the variation to be 3 10' W., and our situation to be twenty-five miles to the northward of the log; for which I know not how to account. At noon on the 27th, our lat.i.tude by observation was 10 51'

S., which was agreeable to the log; and our longitude was 252 11' W. We steered N.W. all day on the 28th, in order to make the land of Java; and at noon on the 29th, our lat.i.tude by observation was 9 31' S., longitude 254 10' W.; and in the morning of the 30th, I took into my possession the log-book and journals, at least all I could find, of the officers, petty officers, and seamen, and enjoined them secrecy with respect to where they had been.

At seven in the evening, being in the lat.i.tude of Java Head, and not seeing any land, I concluded that we were too far to the westward: I therefore hauled up E.N.E. having before steered N. by E. In the night, we had thunder and lightning; and about twelve o'clock, by the light of the flashes, we saw the land bearing east. I then tacked and stood to the S.W. till four o'clock in the morning of the 1st of October; and at six, Java Head, or the west end of Java, bore S.E. by E., distant five leagues: Soon after we saw Prince's Island, bearing E. 1/2 S.; and at ten, the island of Cracatoa, bearing N.E. Cracatoa is a remarkably high-peaked island, and at noon it bore N. 40 E. distant seven leagues.

I must now observe that, during our run from Savu, I allowed twenty minutes a-day for the westerly current, which I concluded must run strong at this time, especially off the coast of Java, and I found that this allowance was just equivalent to the effect of the current upon the ship.[112]

[Footnote 112: This is a single but not an inconsiderable instance of Cook's skill, in the important art of navigation.--E.]

At four o'clock in the morning of the 2d, we fetched close in with the coast of Java, in fifteen fathom; we then stood along the coast, and early in the forenoon, I sent the boat ash.o.r.e to try if she could procure some fruit for Tupia, who was very ill, and some gra.s.s for the buffaloes that were still alive. In an hour or two she returned with four cocoa-nuts, and a small bunch of plantains, which had been purchased for a shilling, and some herbage for the cattle, which the Indians not only gave us, but a.s.sisted our people to cut. The country looked like one continued wood, and had a very pleasant appearance.

About eleven o'clock, we saw two Dutch ships lying off Anger Point, and I sent Mr Hicks on board of one of them to enquire news of our country, from which we had been absent so long. In the mean time it fell calm, and about noon I anch.o.r.ed in eighteen fathom with a muddy bottom.[113]

When Mr Hicks returned, he reported that the ships were Dutch East Indiamen from Batavia, one of which was bound to Ceylon, and the other to the coast of Malabar; and that there was also a flyboat or packet, which was said to be stationed here to carry letters from the Dutch ships that came hither to Batavia, but which I rather think was appointed to examine all ships that pa.s.s the Streight: From these ships we heard, with great pleasure, that the Swallow had been at Batavia about two years before.[114]

[Footnote 113: Mr Barrow advises that vessels should touch at Anger or Angeire Point, for refreshments. He says it is vastly better than stopping near North Island, on the Sumatra side, as the stores are much superior, and the station is very healthy.--E.]