The Formosan Language

THEIR LANGUAGE AND ORIGIN

I do not know their language as it had no affinity in sound to the Chinese, which is spoken much through the teeth; nor to the Malayan language.

They called the metal that their earrings were made of bullawan, which is the Mindanao word for gold.

So they probably may be related to the Philippine Indians as that is the general name for gold among all those Indians.

I could not learn where they get their iron; but it is most likely they go in their great boats to the north end of Luconia and trade with the Indians of that island for it.

Neither did I see anything beside iron and pieces of buffalo hides, which I could judge that they bought of strangers: their clothes were of their own growth and manufacture.

These men had wooden lances and a few lances headed with iron which are all the weapons that they have.

Their armour is a piece of buffalo hide, shaped like our carters’ frocks, being without sleeves and sewn both sides together with holes for the head and the arms to come forth.

This buff coat reaches down to their knees: it is close about their shoulders, but below it is 3 foot wide and as thick as a board.

No Idols Nor Government

I could never perceive them to worship anything, neither had they any idols; neither did they seem to observe any one day more than other.

I could never perceive that one man was of greater power than another; but they seemed to be all equal; only every man ruling in his own house, and the children respecting and honouring their parents.

Yet it is probable that they have some law or custom by which they are governed; for while we lay here we saw a young man buried alive in the earth; and it was for theft as far as we could understand from them.

There was a great deep hole dug and abundance of people came to the place to take their last farewell of him: among the rest there was one woman who made great lamentation and took off the condemned person’s earrings. We supposed her to be his mother.

After he had taken his leave of her and some others he was put into the pit and covered over with earth.

He did not struggle but yielded very quietly to his punishment; and they rammed the earth close upon him and stifled him.

Their Wives And Children, And Husbandry.

They have but one wife, with whom they live and agree very well. Their children live very obediently under them.

The boys go out a-fishing with their fathers. The girls live at home with their mothers: and when the girls are grown pretty strong they send them to their plantations to dig yams and potatoes, of which they bring home on their heads every day enough to serve the whole family; for they have no rice nor maize.

Their plantations are in the valleys, at a good distance from their houses; where every man has a certain spot of land which is properly his own.

This he manages himself for his own use; and provides enough that he may not be beholding to his neighbour.

Their dish of goats’ maw is nasty.

But they are in their persons a very neat cleanly people, both men and women.

They are withal the quietest and civilest people that I did ever meet with. I could never perceive them to be angry with one another.

I have admired to see 20 or 30 boats aboard our ship at a time, and yet no different among them; but all civil and quiet, endeavouring to help each other on occasion: no noise, nor appearance of distaste and, although sometimes cross accidents would happen which might have set other men together by the ears, yet they were not moved by them.

Sometimes they will also drink freely and warm themselves with their drink; yet neither then could I ever perceive them out of humour.

They are not only thus civil among themselves but very obliging and kind to strangers; nor were their children rude to us, as is usual.

The women, when we came to their houses, would modestly beg any rags or small pieces of cloth to swaddle their young ones in, holding their children out to us.

Begging is usual among all these wild nations. Yet neither did they beg so importunately as in other places; nor did the men ever beg anything at all.

Neither, except once at the first time that we came to an anchor (as I shall relate) did they steal anything; but dealt justly and with great sincerity with us; and make us very welcome to their houses with bashee-drink.

If they had none of this liquor themselves they would buy a jar of drink of their neighbours and sit down with us: for we could see them go and give a piece or two of their gold for some jars of bashee.

Among wild Indians, as these seem to be, I wondered to see buying and selling, which is not so usual; nor to converse so freely as to go aboard strangers’ ships with so little caution: yet their own small trading may have brought them to this.

At these entertainments they and their family, wife and children, drank out of small calabashes: and when by themselves they drink about from one to another; but when any of us came among them then they would always drink to one of us.

They have no coin. But they have small crumbs of the metal before described which they bind up very safe in plantain leaves or the like.

This metal they exchange for what they want, giving a small quantity of it, about two or three grains, for a jar of drink that would hold five or six gallons. They have no scales but give it by guess. Thus much in general.

BARTERING WITH THEM

We anchored here on August 6. While we were furling our sails there came near 100 boats of the natives aboard, with 3-4 men in each; so that our deck was full of men.

We were at first afraid of them. So we got 20 or 30 small arms on our poop and kept 3-4 men as sentinels, with guns in their hands, ready to fire on them if they had offered to molest us.

But they were pretty quiet, only they picked up such old iron that they found on our deck, and they also took out our pump bolts and linchpins out of the carriages of our guns before we perceived them.

At last one of our men perceived one of them very busy getting out one of our linchpins; and took hold of the fellow who immediately bawled out, and all the rest presently leapt overboard, some into their boats, others into the sea; and they all made away for the shore.

But when we perceived their fright we made much of him that was in hold, who stood trembling all the while; and at last we gave him a small piece of iron, with which he immediately leapt overboard and swam to his consorts who hovered about our ship to see the issue.

Then we beckoned to them to come aboard again, being very loth to lose a commerce with them. Some of the boats came aboard again, and they were always very honest and civil afterward.

We presently after this sent a canoe ashore to see their manner of living and what provision they had: the canoe’s crew were made very welcome with bashee-drink and saw abundance of hogs, some of which they bought and returned aboard.

After this the natives brought aboard both hogs and goats to us in their own boats; and every day we should have fifteen or twenty hogs and goats in boats aboard by our side.

These we bought for a small matter; we could buy a good fat goat for an old iron hoop, and a hog of seventy or eighty pounds weight for two or three pound of iron.

Their drink also they brought off in jars, which we bought for old nails, spikes and leaden bullets. Beside the fore-mentioned commodities they brought aboard great quantities of yams and potatoes; which we purchased for nails, spikes or bullets.

It was one man’s work to be all day cutting out bars of iron into small pieces with a cold chisel: and these were for the great purchases of hogs and goats, which they would not sell for nails, as their drink and roots. We never let them know what store we have, that they may value it the more.

Every morning as soon as it was light they would thus come aboard with their commodities which we bought as we had occasion.

We did commonly furnish ourselves with as many goats and roots as served us all the day; and their hogs we bought in large quantities as we thought convenient; for we salted them. Their hogs were very sweet; but I never saw so many measled ones.

We filled all our water at a curious brook close by us in Grafton’s Isle where we first anchored. We stayed there about three or four days before we went to other islands.

We sailed to the southward, passing on the east side of Grafton Island, and then passed through between that and Monmouth Island; but we found no anchoring till we came to the north end of Monmouth Island, and there we stopped during one tide.

The tide runs very strong here and sometimes makes a short chopping sea. Its course among these islands is south by east and north by west. The flood sets to the north, and ebb to the south, and it rises and falls eight foot.

When we went from hence we coasted about two leagues to the southward on the west side of Monmouth Island; and, finding no anchor-ground we stood over to the Bashee Island and came to an anchor on the north-east part of it, against a small sandy bay, in seven fathom clean hard sand and about a quarter of a mile from the shore. Here is a pretty wide channel between these two islands and anchoring all over it. The depth of water is twelve, fourteen, and sixteen fathom.

We presently built a tent ashore to mend our sails in, and stayed all the rest of our time here, namely, from the 13th day of August till the 26th day of September.

In which time we mended our sails and scrubbed our ship’s bottom very well; and every day some of us went to their towns and were kindly entertained by them. Their boats also came aboard with their merchandise to sell, and lay aboard all day; and if we did not take it off their hands one day they would bring the same again the next.

We had yet the winds at south-west and south-south-west mostly fair weather. In October we did expect the winds to shift to the north-east and therefore we provided to sail (as soon as the eastern monsoon was settled) to cruise off of Manila. Accordingly we provided a stock of provision. We salted seventy or eighty good fat hogs and bought yams and potatoes good store to eat at sea.

Driven Off By A Violent Storm

On September 24, the winds shifted about to the east, and from thence to the north-east fine fair weather.

The 25th it came at north and began to grow fresh, and the sky began to be clouded, and the wind freshened on us.

At 12 midnight, it blew a very fierce storm.

We were then riding with our best bower ahead; and though our yards and top-mast were down yet we drove. This obliged us to let go our sheet-anchor, veering out a good scope of cable, which stopped us till ten or eleven o’clock the next day. Then the wind came on so fierce that she drove again, with both anchors ahead. The wind was now at north by west and we kept driving till three or four o’clock in the afternoon: and it was well for us that there were no islands, rocks, or sands in our way, for if there had we must have been driven upon them. We used our utmost endeavours to stop here, being loth to go to sea because we had six of our men ashore who could not get off now. At last we were driven out into deep water, and then it was in vain to wait any longer: therefore we hove in our sheet-cable, and got up our sheet-anchor, and cut away our best bower (for to have heaved her up then would have gone near to have foundered us) and so put to sea. We had very violent weather the night ensuing, with very hard rain, and we were forced to scud with our bare poles till three o’clock in the morning.

Then the wind slackened and we brought our ship to under a mizzen, and lay with our head to the westward. The 27th day the wind abated much, but it rained very hard all day and the night ensuing. The 28th day the wind came about to the north-east and it cleared up and blew a hard gale, but it stood not there, for it shifted about to the eastward, thence to the south-east, then to the south, and at last settled at south-west, and then we had a moderate gale and fair weather.

It was the 29th day when the wind came to the south-west. Then we made all the sail we could for the island again. The 30th day we had the wind at west and saw the islands but could not get in before night. Therefore we stood off to the southward till two o’clock in the morning; then we tacked and stood in all the morning, and about twelve o’clock the 1st day of October we anchored again at the place from whence we were driven.

The Natives’ Kindness To Six Of Them Left Behind

Then our six men were brought aboard by the natives, to whom we gave three whole bars of iron for their kindness and civility, which was an extraordinary present to them. Mr. Robert Hall was one of the men that was left ashore. I shall speak more of him hereafter.

He and the rest of them told me that, after the ship was out of sight, the natives began to be more kind to them than they had been before, and persuaded them to cut their hair short, as theirs was, offering to each of them if they would do it a young woman to wife, and a small hatchet and other iron utensils fit for a planter, in dowry; and withal showed them a piece of land for them to manage.

They were courted thus by several of the town where they then were: but they took up their headquarters at the house of him with whom they first went ashore. When the ship appeared in sight again then they importuned them for some iron, which is the chief thing that they covet, even above their earrings. We might have bought all their earrings, or other gold they had, with our iron bars, had we been assured of its goodness; and yet when it was touched and compared with other gold we could not discern any difference, though it looked so pale in the lump; but the seeing them polish it so often was a new discouragement.

The Crew Quit Their Design Of Cruising Off Manila For The Acapulco Ship

This last storm put our men quite out of heart: for although it was not altogether so fierce as that which we were in on the coast of China, which was still fresh in memory, yet it wrought more powerfully and frightened them from their design of cruising before Manila, fearing another storm there.

Now every man wished himself at home, as they had done a hundred times before: but Captain Read and Captain Teat the master persuaded them to go towards Cape Comorin, and then they would tell them more of their minds, intending doubtless to cruise in the Red Sea; and they easily prevailed with the crew.

The eastern monsoon was now at hand, and the best way had been to go through the Straits of Malacca: but Captain Teat said it was dangerous by reason of many islands and shoals there with which none of us were acquainted.

Therefore he thought it best to go round on the east side of the Philippine Islands and so, keeping south toward the Spice Islands, to pass out into the East Indian Ocean about the island Timor.

This seemed to be a very tedious way about, and as dangerous altogether for shoals; but not for meeting with English or Dutch ships, which was their greatest fear. I was well enough satisfied, knowing that the farther we went the more knowledge and experience I should get, which was the main thing that I regarded; and should also have the more variety of places to attempt an escape from them, being fully resolved to take the first opportunity of giving them the slip.