A Voyage to New Holland, Etc. in the Year 1699 Part 3

Palm-berries (called here dendees) grow plentifully about Bahia; the largest are as big as walnuts; they grow in bunches on the top of the body of the tree, among the roots of the branches or leaves, as all fruits of the palm kind do. These are the same kind of berries or nuts as those they make the palm-oil with on the coast of guinea, where they abound: and I was told that they make oil with them here also. They sometimes roast and eat them; but when I had one roasted to prove it I did not like it.

Physick-nuts, as our seamen called them, are called here pineon; and agnus castus is called here carrepat: these both grow here: so do mendibees, a fruit like physick-nuts. They scorch them in a pan over the fire before they eat them.

Here are also great plenty of cabbage-trees, and other fruits, which I did not get information about and which I had not the opportunity of seeing; because this was not the season, it being our spring, and consequently their autumn, when their best fruits were gone, though some were left. However I saw abundance of wild berries in the woods and fields, but I could not learn their names or nature.

They have withal good plenty of ground fruit, as callavances, pineapples, pumpkins, watermelons, musk-melons, cuc.u.mbers, and roots; as yams, potatoes, ca.s.sava, etc. Garden herbs also good store; as cabbages, turnips, onions, leeks, and abundance of other salading, and for the pot.

Drugs of several sorts, namely sa.s.safras, snake-root, etc. Beside the woods I mentioned for dyeing and other uses as fustick, speckled-wood, etc.

I brought home with me from hence a good number of plants, dried between the leaves of books; of some of the choicest of which that are not spoiled I may give a specimen at the end of the book.

OF THEIR WILDFOWL, MACAWS, PARROTS, ETC.

Here are said to be great plenty and variety of wildfowl, namely yemmas, macaws (which are called here jackoos, and are a larger sort of parrot, and scarcer) parrots, parakeets, flamingos, carrion-crows, chattering-crows, c.o.c.krecoes, bill-birds finely painted, corresoes, doves, pigeons, jenetees, clocking-hens, crab-catchers, galdens, currecoos, muscovy ducks, common ducks, widgeons, teal, curlews, men-of-war birds, b.o.o.bies, noddies, pelicans, etc.

THE YEMMA, CARRION-CROW AND CHATTERING-CROW, BILL-BIRD, CURRESO, TURTLEDOVE AND WILD PIGEONS; THE JENETEE,

The yemma is bigger than a swan, grey-feathered, with a long thick sharp-pointed bill.

The carrion-crow and chattering-crows are called here mackeraws, and are like those I described in the West Indies. The bill of the chattering-crow is black, and the upper bill is round, bending downwards like a hawk's bill, rising up in a ridge almost semi-circular, and very sharp, both at the ridge or convexity, and at the point or extremity: the lower bill is flat and shuts even with it. I was told by a Portuguese here that their negro wenches make love potions with these birds. And the Portuguese care not to let them have any of these birds, to keep them from that superst.i.tion: as I found one afternoon when I was in the fields with a padre and another, who shot two of them, and hid them, as they said, for that reason. They are not good food, but their bills are reckoned a good antidote against poison.

The bill-birds are so called by the English from their monstrous bills, which are as big as their bodies. I saw none of these birds here, but saw several of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s flayed off and dried for the beauty of them; the feathers were curiously coloured with red, yellow, and orange-colour.

The curresos (called here mackeraws) are such as are in the Bay of Campeachy.

Turtledoves are in great plenty here; and two sorts of wild pigeons; the one sort blackish, the other a light grey: the blackish or dark grey are the bigger, being as large as our wood-quests, or wood-pigeons in England. Both sorts are very good meat; and are in such plenty from May till September that a man may shoot 8 or 10 dozen in several shots at one standing, in a close misty morning, when they come to feed on berries that grow in the woods.

The jenetee is a bird as big as a lark with black feathers, and yellow legs and feet. It is accounted very wholesome food.

CLOCKING-HEN, CRAB-CATCHER, GALDEN, AND BLACK HERON: THE DUCKS, WIDGEON AND TEAL; AND OSTRICHES TO THE SOUTHWARD, AND OF THE DUNGHILL-FOWLS.

Clocking-hens are much like the crab-catchers which I have described, but the legs are not altogether so long. They keep always in swampy wet places, though their claws are like land-fowls' claws. They make a noise or cluck like our brood-hens, or dunghill-hens, when they have chickens, and for that reason they are called by the English clocking-hens. There are many of them in the Bay of Campeachy (though I omitted to speak of them there) and elsewhere in the West Indies. There are both here and there four sorts of these long-legged fowls, near akin to each other as so many sub-species of the same kind; namely crab-catchers, clocking-hens, galdens (which three are in shape and colour like herons in England, but less; the galden, the biggest of the three, the crab-catcher the smallest) and a fourth sort which are black, but shaped like the other, having long legs and short tails; these are about the bigness of crab-catchers, and feed as they do.

Currecoos are waterfowls, as big as pretty large chickens, of a bluish colour, with short legs and tail; they feed also in swampy ground and are very good meat. I have not seen of them elsewhere.

The wild ducks here are said to be of two sorts, the muscovy and the common ducks. In the wet season here are abundance of them, but in the dry time but few. Widgeon and teal also are said to be in great plenty here in the wet season.

To the southward of Bahia there are also ostriches in great plenty, though it is said they are not so large as those of Africa: they are found chiefly in the southern parts of Brazil, especially among the large savannahs near the river of Plate; and from thence further south towards the Straits of Magellan.

As for tame fowl at Bahia the chief beside their ducks are dunghill-fowls, of which they have two sorts; one sort much of the size of our c.o.c.ks and hens; the other very large: and the feathers of these last are a long time coming forth: so that you see them very naked when half grown; but when they are full-grown and well feathered they appear very large fowls, as indeed they are; neither do they want for price; for they are sold at Bahia for half-a-crown or three s.h.i.+llings apiece, just as they are brought first to market out of the country, when they are so lean as to be scarce fit to eat.

OF THEIR CATTLE, HORSES, ETC.

The land animals here are horses, black cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits, hogs, leopards, tigers, foxes, monkeys, peccary (a sort of wild hogs called here pica) armadillo, alligators, iguanas (called quittee) lizards, serpents, toads, frogs, and a sort of amphibious creatures called by the Portuguese cachoras-de-agua, in English water-dogs.

LEOPARDS AND TIGERS.

The leopards and tigers of this country are said to be large and very fierce: but here on the coast they are either destroyed or driven back towards the heart of the country; and therefore are seldom found but in the borders and out-plantations, where they oftentimes do mischief. Here are three or four sorts of monkeys, of different sizes and colours. One sort is very large; and another sort is very small: these last are ugly in shape and feature and have a strong scent of musk.

OF THEIR SERPENTS; THE RATTLESNAKE, SMALL GREEN SNAKE. AMPHISBAENA, SMALL BLACK AND SMALL GREY SNAKE; THE GREAT LAND-SNAKE, AND THE GREAT WATERSNAKE; AND OF THE WATER-DOG.

They have here also the amphisbaena, or two-headed snake, of a grey colour, mixed with blackish stripes, whose bite is reckoned to be incurable. It is said to be blind, though it has two small specks in each head like eyes: but whether it sees or not I cannot tell. They say it lives like a mole, mostly underground; and that when it is found above ground it is easily killed, because it moves but slowly: neither is its sight (if it hath any) so good as to discern anyone that comes near to kill it: as few of these creatures fly at a man or hurt him but when he comes in their way. It is about 14 inches long and about the bigness of the inner joint of a man's middle finger; being of one and the same bigness from one end to the other, with a head at each end (as they said; for I cannot vouch it, for one I had was cut short at one end) and both alike in shape and bigness; and it is said to move with either head foremost, indifferently; whence it is called by the Portuguese cobra-de-dos-cabesas, the snake with two heads.

The small black snake is a very venomous creature.

There is also a grey snake, with red and brown spots all over its back.

It is as big as a man's arm and about 3 foot long, and is said to be venomous. I saw one of these.

Here are two sorts of very large snakes or serpents: one of them a land-snake, the other a water-snake. The land-snake is of a grey colour, and about 18 or 20 foot long: not very venomous, but ravenous. I was promised the sight of one of their skins but wanted opportunity.

The water-snake is said to be near 30 foot long. These live wholly in the water, either in large rivers or great lakes, and prey upon any creature that comes within their reach, be it man or beast. They draw their prey to them with their tails: for when they see anything on the banks of the river or lake where they lurk they swing about their tails 10 or 12 foot over the bank; and whatever stands within their sweep is s.n.a.t.c.hed with great violence into the river, and drowned by them. Nay it is reported very credibly that if they see only a shade of any animal at all on the water, they will flourish their tails to bring in the man or beast whose shade they see and are oftentimes too successful in it. Wherefore men that have business near any place where these water-monsters are suspected to lurk are always provided with a gun, which they often fire, and that scares them away or keeps them quiet. They are said to have great heads and strong teeth about 6 inches long. I was told by an Irishman who lived here that his wife's father was very near being taken by one of them, about this time of my first arrival here, when his father was with him up in the country: for the beast flourished his tail for him, but came not nigh enough by a yard or two; however it scared him sufficiently.

The amphibious creatures here which I said are called by the Portuguese cachoras-de-agua or water-dogs, are said to be as big as small mastiffs, and are all hairy and s.h.a.ggy from head to tail. They have 4 short legs, a pretty long head and short tail; and are of a blackish colour. They live in fresh-water ponds and oftentimes come ash.o.r.e and sun themselves; but retire to the water if a.s.saulted. They are eaten and said to be good food. Several of these creatures which I have now spoken of I have not seen, but informed myself about them while I was here at Bahia, from sober and sensible persons among the inhabitants, among whom I met with some that could speak English.

OF THEIR SEA-FISH AND TURTLE; AND OF ST. PAUL'S TOWN.

In the sea upon this coast there is great store and diversity of fish, namely jew-fish for which there is a great market at Bahia in Lent: tarpon, mullet, grouper, snook, garfish (called here goolions) gora.s.ses, barramas, coquindas, cavallies, cachoras (or dogfish) conger eels, herring (as I was told) the serrew, the olio-de-boy (I write and spell them just as they were named to me) whales, etc.

Here is also sh.e.l.lfish (though in less plenty about Bahia than on other parts of the coast) namely lobsters, crawfish, shrimps, crabs, oysters of the common sort, conches, wilks, c.o.c.kles, mussels, periwinkles, etc. Here are three sorts of sea-turtle, namely hawksbill, loggerhead, and green: but none of them are in any esteem, neither Spaniards nor Portuguese loving them: nay they have a great antipathy against them, and would much rather eat a porpoise, though our English count the green turtle very extraordinary food. The reason that is commonly given in the West Indies for the Spaniards not caring to eat of them is the fear they have lest, being usually foul-bodied and many of them poxed (lying, as they do, so promiscuously with their negrines and other she-slaves) they should break out loathsomely like lepers; which this sort of food, it is said, does much incline men to do, searching the body, and driving out any such gross humours: for which cause many of our English valetudinarians have gone from Jamaica (though there they have also turtle) to the island Cayman, at the laying time, to live wholly upon turtle that then abound there; purposely to have their bodies scoured by this food, and their distempers driven out; and have been said to have found many of them good success in it. But this by the way. The hawksbill-turtle on this coast of Brazil is most sought after of any, for its sh.e.l.l; which by report of those I have conversed with at Bahia, is the clearest and best clouded tortoise-sh.e.l.l in the world. I had some of it shown me which was indeed as good as ever I saw. They get a pretty deal of it in some parts on this coast; but it is very dear.

Beside this port of Bahia de todos los Santos there are 2 more princ.i.p.al ports on Brazil where European s.h.i.+ps trade, namely Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro; and I was told that there go as many s.h.i.+ps to each of these places as to Bahia, and 2 men-of-war to each place for their convoys. Of the other ports in this country none is of greater note than that of St.

Paul's where they gather much gold; but the inhabitants are said to be a sort of banditti, or loose people that live under no government: but their gold brings them all sorts of commodities that they need, as clothes, arms, ammunition, etc. The town is said to be large and strong.

CHAPTER 3.

TWO OCEANS AND NEW HOLLAND.

THE AUTHOR'S STAY AND BUSINESS AT BAHIA: OF THE WINDS, AND SEASONS OF THE YEAR THERE.

My stay here at Bahia was about a month; during which time the viceroy of Goa came hither from thence in a great s.h.i.+p, said to be richly laden with all sorts of India goods; but she did not break bulk here, being bound home for Lisbon; only the viceroy intended to refresh his men (of whom he had lost many, and most of the rest were very sickly, having been 4 months in their voyage hither) and so to take in water, and depart for Europe in company with the other Portuguese s.h.i.+ps thither bound; who had orders to be ready to sail by the twentieth of May. He desired me to carry a letter for him, directed to his successor the new viceroy of Goa; which I did, sending it thither afterwards by Captain Hammond, whom I found near the Cape of Good Hope. The refres.h.i.+ng my men and taking in water was the main also of my business here; beside the having the better opportunity to compose the disorders among my crew: which, as I have before related, were grown to so great a height that they could not without great difficulty be appeased: however, finding opportunity during my stay in this place to allay in some measure the ferment that had been raised among my men, I now set myself to provide for the carrying on of my voyage with more heart than before, and put all hands to work, in order to it, as fast as the backwardness of my men would permit; who showed continually their unwillingness to proceed farther. Besides, their heads were generally filled with strange notions of southerly winds that were now setting in (and there had been already some flurries of them) which, as they surmised, would hinder any farther attempts of going on to the southward so long as they should last.

The winds begin to s.h.i.+ft here in April and September, and the seasons of the year (the dry and the wet) alter with them. In April the southerly winds make their entrance on this coast, bringing in the wet season, with violent tornados, thunder and lightning, and much rain. In September the other coasting trade at east-north-east comes in and clears the sky, bringing fair weather. This, as to the change of wind, is what I have observed, but as to the change of weather accompanying it so exactly here at Bahia this is a particular exception to what I have experienced in all other places of south lat.i.tudes that I have been in between the tropics, or those I have heard of; for there the dry season sets in, in April, and the wet about October or November, sooner or later (as I have said that they are, in south lat.i.tudes, the reverse of the seasons, or weather, in the same months in north lat.i.tudes, whereas on this coast of Brazil the wet season comes in in April at the same time that it doth in north lat.i.tudes, and the dry (as I have said here) in September; the rains here not lasting so far in the year as in other places; for in September the weather is usually so fair that in the latter part of that month they begin to cut their sugarcane here, as I was told; for I enquired particularly about the seasons: though this, as to the season of cutting of cane, which I was now a.s.sured to be in September, agrees not very well with that I was formerly told, that in Brazil they cut the cane in July.

And so as to what is said a little lower in the same page, that in managing their cane they are not confined to the seasons, this ought to have been expressed only of planting them; for they never cut them but in the dry season.

But to return to the southerly winds, which came in (as I expected they would) while I was here: these daunted my s.h.i.+p's company very much, though I had told them they were to look for them: but they being ignorant as to what I told them farther, that these were only coasting winds, sweeping the sh.o.r.e to about 40 or 50 leagues in breadth from it, and imagining that they had blown so all the sea over, between America and Africa; and being confirmed in this their opinion by the Portuguese pilots of European s.h.i.+ps, with whom several of my officers conversed much, and who were themselves as ignorant that these were only coasting tradewinds (themselves going away before them in their return homewards till they cross the Line, and so having no experience of the breadth of them) being thus possessed with a conceit that we could not sail from hence till September; this made them still the more remiss in their duties, and very listless to the getting things in a readiness for our departure. However I was the more diligent myself to have the s.h.i.+p scrubbed, and to send my water casks ash.o.r.e to get them trimmed, my beer being now out. I went also to the governor to get my water filled; for here being but one watering-place (and the water running low, now at the end of the dry season) it was always so crowded with the European s.h.i.+ps'

boats, who were preparing to be gone, that my men could seldom come nigh it till the governor very kindly sent an officer to clear the watering-place for my men, and to stay there till my water-casks were all full, whom I satisfied for his pains. Here I also got aboard 9 or 10 ton of ballast, and made my boatswain fit the rigging that was amiss: and I enquired also of my particular officers, whose business it was, whether they wanted any stores, especially pitch and tar; for that here I would supply myself before I proceeded any farther; but they said they had enough, though it did not afterwards prove so.

I commonly went ash.o.r.e every day, either upon business, or to recreate myself in the fields, which were very pleasant, and the more for a shower of rain now and then, that ushers in the wet season. Several sorts of good fruits were also still remaining, especially oranges, which were in such plenty that I and all my company stocked ourselves for our voyage with them, and they did us a great kindness; and we took in also a good quant.i.ty of rum and sugar: but for fowls, they being here lean and dear, I was glad I had stocked myself at St. Jago. But, by the little care my officers took for fresh provisions, one might conclude they did not think of going much farther. Besides I had like to have been embroiled with the clergy here (of the Inquisition, as I suppose) and so my voyage might have been hindered. What was said to them of me by some of my company that went ash.o.r.e I know not; but I was a.s.sured by a merchant there that if they got me into their clutches (and it seems when I was last ash.o.r.e they had narrowly watched me) the governor himself could not release me.

Besides I might either be murdered in the streets, as he sent me word, or poisoned, if I came ash.o.r.e any more; and therefore he advised me to stay aboard. Indeed I had now no further business ash.o.r.e but to take leave of the governor and therefore took his advice.

HIS DEPARTURE FOR NEW HOLLAND.

Our stay here was till the 23rd of April. I would have gone before if I could sooner have fitted myself; but was now earnest to be gone, because this harbour lies open to the south and south-south-west, which are raging winds here, and now was the season for them. We had 2 or 3 touches of them; and one pretty severe, and the s.h.i.+ps ride there so near each other that, if a cable would fail or an anchor start, you are instantly aboard of one s.h.i.+p or other: and I was more afraid of being disabled he in harbour by these bl.u.s.tering winds than discouraged by them, as my people were, from prosecuting the voyage; for at present I even wished for a brisk southerly wind, as soon as I should be once well out of the harbour, to set me the sooner into the true general tradewind.

The tide of flood being spent, and having a fine land-breeze on the 23rd in the morning, I went away from the anchoring place before it was light; and then lay by till daylight that we might see the better how to go out of the harbour. I had a pilot belonging to Mr. c.o.c.k who went out with me, to whom I gave 3 dollars; but I found I could as well have gone out myself by the soundings I made at coming in. The wind was east by north and fair weather. By 10 o'clock I was got past all danger and then sent away my pilot.

CAPE SALVADOR.

At 12 Cape Salvador bore north distant 6 leagues, and we had the winds between the east by north and south-east a considerable time, so that we kept along near the sh.o.r.e, commonly in sight of it. The southerly blasts had now left us again; for they come at first in short flurries, and s.h.i.+ft to other points (for 10 or 12 days sometimes) before they are quite set in: and we had uncertain winds, between sea and land-breezes, and the coasting trade, which was itself unsettled.