Their Coasting Along Mindanao, From East to Southeast

It was in a bay on the north-east side of the island that we came to an anchor, as has been said. We lay in this bay but one night and part of the next day.

Yet there we got speech with some of the natives, who by signs made us to understand that the City Mindanao was on the west side of the island. We endeavoured to persuade one of them to go with us to be our pilot but he would not: therefore in the afternoon we loosed from hence, steering again to the south-east, having the wind at south-west. When we came to the south-east end of the island Mindanao we saw two small islands about three leagues distant from it.

We might have passed between them and the main island, as we learnt since; but not knowing them, nor what dangers we might encounter there, we chose rather to sail to the eastward of them. But meeting very strong westerly winds we got nothing forward in many days. In this time we first saw the islands Meangis, which are about sixteen leagues distant from the Mindanao, bearing south-east. I shall have occasion to speak more of them hereafter.

TORNADOES AND BOISTEROUS WEATHER.

On July 4, we got into a deep bay 4 leagues north-west from the 2 small islands before mentioned. But the night before, in a violent tornado, our bark being unable to bear any longer, bore away, which put us in some pain for fear she was overset, as we had like to have been ourselves. We anchored on the south-west side of the bay in fifteen fathom water, about a cable’s length from the shore.

Here we were forced to shelter ourselves from the violence of the weather, which was so boisterous with rains and tornadoes and a strong westerly wind that we were very glad to find this place to anchor in, being the only shelter on this side from the west winds.

THE SOUTH-EAST COAST, AND ITS SAVANNAH AND PLENTY OF DEER.

This bay is not above two miles wide at the mouth, but farther in it is three leagues wide and seven fathom deep; running in north-north-west. There is a good depth of water about four or five leagues in, but rocky foul ground for about two leagues in from the mouth on both sides of the bay, except only in that place where we lay.

About 3 leagues in from the mouth, on the eastern side, there are fair sandy bays and very good anchoring in four, five, and six fathom. The land on the east side is high, mountainous and woody, yet very well watered with small brooks, and there is one river large enough for canoes to enter. On the west side of the bay the land is of a mean height with a large savannah bordering on the sea, and stretching from the mouth of the bay a great way to the westward.

This savannah abounds with long grass and it is plentifully stocked with deer. The adjacent woods are a covert for them in the heat of the day; but mornings and evenings they feed in the open plains, as thick as in our parks in England. I never saw anywhere such plenty of wild deer, though I have met with them in several parts of America, both in the North and South Seas.

The deer live here pretty peaceably and unmolested; for there are no inhabitants on that side of the bay. We visited this savannah every morning and killed as many deer as we pleased, sometimes 16 or 18 in a day; and we did eat nothing but venison all the time we stayed here.

We saw a great many plantations by the sides of the mountains on the east side of the bay, and we went to one of them in hopes to learn of the inhabitants whereabouts the city was, that we might not over-sail it in the night, but they fled from us.

THEY COAST ALONG THE SOUTH SIDE TO THE RIVER OF MINDANAO CITY, AND ANCHOR THERE.

We lay here till the 12th day before the winds abated of their fury, and then we sailed from hence, directing our course to the westward. In the morning we had a land-wind at north. At 11 o’clock the sea-breeze came at west, just in our teeth, but it being fair weather we kept on our way, turning and taking the advantage of the land-breezes by night and the sea-breezes by day.

Being now past the south-east part of the island we coasted down on the south side and we saw abundance of canoes a-fishing, and now and then a small village. Neither were these inhabitants afraid of us (as the former) but came aboard; yet we could not understand them, nor they us, but by signs: and when we mentioned the word Mindanao they would point towards it.

On July 18, we arrived before the river of Mindanao. Its mouth is in latitude 6 degrees 22 minutes north and is laid in 231 degrees 12 minutes longitude west, from the Lizard in England.

We anchored right against the river in 15 fathom water, clear hard sand, about two miles from the shore and three or four miles from a small island that lay without us to the southward. We fired seven or nine guns, I remember not well which, and were answered again with three from the shore; for which we gave one again.

THE SULTAN’S BROTHER AND SON COME ABOARD THEM, AND INVITE THEM TO SETTLE THERE.

Immediately after our coming to an anchor Raja Laut and one of the sultan’s sons came off in a canoe, being rowed with ten oars, and demanded in Spanish what we were, and from whence we came.

Mr. Smith (he who was taken prisoner at Leon in Mexico) answered in the same language that we were English, and that we had been a great while out of England.

They told us that we were welcome and asked us many questions about England especially our East India merchants and whether we were sent by them to settle a factory here.

Mr. Smith told them that we came hither only to buy provision. They seemed a little discontented when they understood that we were not come to settle among them.

They had heard of our arrival on the east side of the island a great while before, and entertained hopes that we were sent purposely out of England hither to settle a trade with them; which it should seem they are very desirous of.

For Captain Goodlud had been here not long before to treat with them about it; and when he went away told them (as they said) that in a short time they might expect an ambassador from England to make a full bargain with them.

THE FEASIBLENESS AND PROBABLE ADVANTAGE OF SUCH A SETTLEMENT FROM THE NEIGHBOURING GOLD AND SPICE ISLANDS

Indeed upon mature thoughts I should think we could not have done better than to have complied with the desire they seemed to have of our settling here; and to have taken up our quarters among them.

For as thereby we might better have consulted our own profit and satisfaction than by the other loose roving way of life; so it might probably have proved of public benefit to our nation and been a means of introducing an English settlement and trade, not only here, but through several of the Spice Islands which lie in its neighbourhood.

For the islands Meangis, which I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, lie within twenty leagues of Mindanao. These are three small islands that abound with gold and cloves, if I may credit my author Prince Jeoly, who was born on one of them and was at that time a slave in the city of Mindanao.

He might have been purchased by us of his master for a small matter, as he was afterwards by Mr. Moody (who came hither to trade and laded a ship with clove-bark) and by transporting him home to his own country we might have gotten a trade there. But of Prince Jeoly I shall speak more hereafter.

These islands are as yet probably unknown to the Dutch who, as I said before, endeavour to engross all the spice into their own hands.

There was another opportunity offered us here of settling on another Spice Island that was very well inhabited: for the inhabitants fearing the Dutch and understanding that the English were settling at Mindanao, their sultan sent his nephew to Mindanao while we were there to invite us thither: Captain Swan conferred with him about it divers times, and I do believe he had some inclination to accept the offer; and I am sure most of the men were for it: but this never came to a head for want of a true understanding between Captain Swan and his men, as may be declared hereafter.

Beside the benefit which might accrue from this trade with Meangis and other the Spice Islands the Philippine Islands themselves, by a little care and industry, might have afforded us a very beneficial trade, and all these trades might have been managed from Mindanao by settling there first. For that island lies very convenient for trading either to the Spice Islands or to the rest of the Philippine Islands: since, as its soil is much of the same nature with either of them, so it lies as it were in the centre of the gold and spice-trade in these parts, the islands north of Mindanao abounding most in gold, and those south of Meangis in spice.

THE BEST WAY TO MINDANAO BY THE SOUTH SEA AND TERRA AUSTRALIS; AND OF AN ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY THERE BY CAPTAIN DAVIS, AND A PROBABILITY OF A GREATER.

The island Mindanao has a very convenient location for trade, so, considering its distance, the way thither may not be over-long and tiresome.

It would be better to go to Mindanao by setting out of England about the latter end of August, and to pass round Tierra del Fuego, and so, stretching over towards New Holland, coast it along that shore till I came near to Mindanao; or first I would coast down near the American shore as far as I found convenient and then direct my course accordingly for the island.

By this I should avoid coming near any of the Dutch settlements and be sure to meet always with a constant brisk easterly trade-wind after I was once past Tierra del Fuego. Whereas in passing about the Cape of Good Hope, after you are shot over the East Indian Ocean and are come to the islands, you must pass through the Straits of Malacca or Sunda, or else some other straits east from Java, where you will be sure to meet with country-winds, go on which side of the Equator you please; and this would require ordinarily seven or eight months for the voyage, but the other I should hope to perform in six or seven at most. In your return from thence also you must observe the same rule as the Spaniards do in going from Manila to Acapulco; only as they run towards the North Pole for variable winds, so you must run to the southward till you meet with a wind that will carry you over to Tierra del Fuego.

There are places enough to touch at for refreshment, either going or coming. You may touch going thither on either side of Terra Patagonia, or, if you please, at the Galapagos Islands, where there is refreshment enough; and returning you may probably touch somewhere on New Holland, and so make some profitable discovery in these places without going out of your way. And to speak my thoughts freely, I believe it is owing to the neglect of this easy way that all that vast tract of Terra Australis which bounds the South Sea is yet undiscovered: those that cross that sea seeming to design some business on the Peruvian or Mexican coast, and so leaving that at a distance. To confirm which I shall add what Captain Davis told me lately that, after his departure from us at the haven of Realejo (as is mentioned in the 8th chapter) he went, after several traverses, to the Galapagos, and that, standing thence southward for wind to bring him about Tierra del Fuego in the latitude of 27 south, about 500 leagues from Copayapo on the coast of Chile, he saw a small sandy island just by him; and that they saw to the westward of it a long tract of pretty high land tending away toward the north-west out of sight. This might probably be the coast of Terra Australis Incognita.

THE CAPACITY THEY WERE IN TO SETTLE HERE

But to return to Mindanao; as to the capacity we were then in, of settling ourselves at Mindanao, although we were not sent out of any such design of settling, yet we were as well provided, or better, considering all circumstances, than if we had. For there was scarce any useful trade but some or other of us understood it.

We had sawyers, carpenters, joiners, brick-makers, bricklayers, shoemakers, tailors, etc. We only wanted a good smith for great work; which we might have had at Mindanao. We were very well provided with iron, lead, and all sorts of tools, as saws, axes, hammers, etc. We had powder and shot enough, and very good small arms.

If we had designed to build a fort we could have spared 8 or 10 guns out of our ship and men enough to have managed it, and any affair of trade beside. We had also a great advantage above raw men that are sent out of England into these places, who proceed usually too cautiously, coldly, and formally to compass any considerable design, which experience better teaches than any rules whatsoever; besides the danger of their lives in so great and sudden a change of air: whereas we were all inured to hot climates, hardened by many fatigues, and in general, daring men, and such as would not be easily baffled.

To add one thing more, our men were almost tired and began to desire a quietus est; and therefore they would gladly have seated themselves anywhere. We had a good ship too, and enough of us (beside what might have been spared to manage our new settlement) to bring the news with the effects to the owners in England: for Captain Swan had already five thousand pound in gold, which he and his merchants received for goods sold mostly to Captain Harris and his men: which if he had laid but part of it out in spice, as probably he might have done, would have satisfied the merchants to their hearts’ content. So much by way of digression.

To proceed therefore with our first reception at Mindanao, Raja Laut and his nephew sat still in their canoe, and would not come aboard us; because, as they said, they had no orders for it from the sultan. After about half an hour’s discourse they took their leaves; first inviting Captain Swan ashore and promising to assist him in getting provision; which they said at present was scarce, but in three or four month’s time the rice would be gathered in and then he might have as much as he pleased: and that in the meantime he might secure his ship in some convenient place for fear of the westerly winds which they said would be very violent at the latter end of this month and all the next, as we found them.

THE MINDANAYANS MEASURE THEIR SHIP

We did not know the quality of these 2 persons till after they were gone; else we should have fired some guns at their departure: when they were gone a certain officer under the sultan came aboard and measured our ship.

A custom derived from the Chinese, who always measure the length and breadth, and the depth of the hold of all ships that come to load there: by which means they know how much each ship will carry. But what reason this custom is used either by the Chinese or Mindanao men I could never learn: unless the Mindanayans design by this means to improve their skill in shipping, against they have a trade.