Adventures in Southern Seas | Page 9

the island. When
we pointed our muskets again he and his companions made off into the
bush. We then landed, thinking the contest at an end, but we had
scarcely quitted the boat when the blacks returned, carrying shields for
their defence. They approached us and threw spears, but with no result.
Another musket shot convinced them their shields were no protection
against our firearms, when they again disappeared.
We then walked up to the blacks' camp and examined with much
curiosity the primitive nature of their dwellings. Then, leaving some
beads and pieces of cloth in exchange for some spears, which we took
away with us, we returned to our boat, observing on our way several
light canoes, each made of a single piece of bark, bent and laced up at
both ends. In the evening two boats' crews were sent away fishing, and
they caught in two hauls of the seine nearly three hundredweight of fish.
Hartog, after our first landing, made many friendly overtures to the
natives, who would not, however, hold any communication with us,
from which we came to the conclusion that other navigators had been
here before us, not so well disposed.
With regard to the gold and precious stones we expected to find, our
inspection of the blacks' camp convinced us that nothing of the kind
existed, at all events, in this part of the country. Such ornaments or
utensils as the natives seemed to possess were of the crudest
description, made of wood or clay, or consisting of shells and pebbles
from the seashore. The stories of fabulous wealth, therefore, to be
found in this new land appeared to be myths. It was to seek for treasure
that the "Endraght" had been equipped by a number of merchants at
Amsterdam, of whom my master, De Decker, made one, and we
realized how disappointed they would be if we returned empty-handed.
Our crew, also, began to show signs of discontent, and to murmur at
having been brought so far on a fool's errand. It was only Dirk Hartog's

indomitable personality that prevented a mutiny.
It was this same sordid greed for gain which had caused Christopher
Columbus to be sent home in chains from America because he had
failed to find gold. The acquisition of new countries did not interest
those who equipped the navigators of this time. For this reason, no
attempt was made by Hartog to take possession of any of the countries
we visited. It was to find treasure he had been sent out, and should he
return without it he might look for a surly welcome.
Yet Hartog himself, I am convinced, with the spirit of a great navigator,
found satisfaction in having accomplished so long a voyage, to reach
the goal for which he sailed.
"Can I help it, Peter," he said to me one evening when we sat together
in his cabin examining the charts I had drawn under his directions, "that
the natives of this country are poor? Gold, ivory, precious stones,
spices even, seem not to exist in the South as they do in the East. Did I
make this country, that I should be held responsible for what it
contains?"
But, although he spoke thus, I could see he was bitterly disappointed at
finding the land we had come so far to seek little better than a
wilderness, and the people upon it so poor that they went entirely naked,
and devoured each other in order to satisfy their hunger. I tried to cheer
him by reminding him we might yet find chances to enrich ourselves
before returning home, but I could see he was troubled by the thought
that the voyage he had accomplished with so much skill and daring
might prove resultless in the accumulation of wealth. In order to
hearten the crew with fresh adventure, the course of the "Endraght" was
now directed toward the islands of the Pacific. These islands were
reported to abound in pearl shell, and whilst cruising among them we
looked forward to obtaining a supply of pearls which might compensate
the merchants at Amsterdam for the expense of our voyage, and send us
all home rich men.
CHAPTER VI

THE FIGHT ON THE SANDS
I must now tell of all incident I would willingly have left unrecorded,
but as I have undertaken to set down here, in the order of its sequence,
each event which took place upon my voyages with Dirk Hartog on
southern seas, I must not, as a faithful chronicler, omit to record each
happening in its order.
Now it so fell out that our first supercargo, Gilles Miebas Van Luck,
bore me a grudge, although I could recall no act on my part upon which
to attribute it, unless it be that I had