Volume 1

A new general collection of voyages and travels. Consisting of the most esteemed relations, which have been hitherto published in any language; comprehending everything remarkable in its kind, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

Date:: 1745-1747

Credit: A new general collection of voyages and travels. Consisting of the most esteemed relations, which have been hitherto published in any language; comprehending everything remarkable in its kind, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Source: Wellcome Collection.

715/764 (page 663)

$Sin Join, Sediment, like Cream of Tartar, but extream or Brava. pa]tj ancj {hong even to a Corrofivenefs; whereas ^other Rocks (hall yield one third or a fourth Part of Salt, in Proportion to the Quantity of Water contained in thofe Hollows. How they The Natives ufed to get the Salt firft ; and in ■ure F'jb. the Evening, gut, fplit, and fait what Fifh they caught, and let them lie in the Salt in Heaps all Night, in the Morning fpreading them in the Sun to dry, and they were ready to drefs when¬ ever they wanted, which was feldom oftner than once a Day, towards Night when they had done fifning. At the mod ufual filhing Places, they generally leave an Earthern Pot, for they chufe to boil their Fifh for the Sake of the Broth, which they efteem far beyond any made of Flefh a. |ivbaleor The Baaleas, which is a Sort of Whale or prompt. Grampus, come at the ufual Times of their Coot- ing to the Ifle of Mayo, to St. Jago more, and moil of all to St. 'John s. Mr. Roberts has feen a Male and Female play three Days fuccef- fively in the Fuurno Harbour. Conftantly every - Night they went-out to Sea, and came-in again about eight or nine the next Morning. They would lie and deep an Hour or two together in the Water like the Hull of a Ship turned Bottom- up ; at which Time it would be eafy to (trike a Harpoon into either, or both of them : He adds, that the Male is not above half the Bignefs of the Female. Thefe Baaleas are very common alfo on the Coaft of Brafil, where they are caught much after the Manner of the Greenland Whales, and Train-Oil made of them. flmbergreofe, Some of thofe People do confidently affirm, that the Ambergreafe is the Sperm of that Fifh, fhed in the Water at the Time of their Cooting : That at firft it is like a Jelly, and whitifh, but gradually acquires its dark Colour and Hardnefs by floating on the Water: Likewife, that the Virgin, or firft Sperm evacuated, is white and tranfparent, and congeals white. Mr. Roberts has feen of that white Ambergreafe, but knows not whether it owed either its Whitenefs or Ori¬ gin to the Caufes affigned b. Formerly a great deal of Ambergreafe was found about this Bland, but very little at prefent. Roberts was told, that about thirty Years before, one Juan Carneira, a Portuguese, who was ba- nifhed from Lisbon for fome Crime, having gotten San Juan, a little Sloop, or Shallop, traded among thefe,Grava‘ f Iflands, and lighted on a Piece of Ambergreafe of almoft an incredible Bignefs: With which he not only procured his Liberty to return before the Term for his Exile was expired, but pur- chafed a plentiful Eftate, and that the Rock, (be¬ tween the two Iflands) near to which he found it, is at prefent called by his Name c. With refpedl to the Inhabitants, Captain Inhabitants. Roberts tells us, their Number did not amount to two hundred Soulsd. The Natives are all Blacks, and the mod innocent and harmlefs, as well as ignorant and fuperftitious, of all the Blandse. In another Place the fame Author fpeaks high¬ ly in Praife of their moral Virtues, efpecially their Charity, Humility, and Hofpitality, in which Refpetft you cannot affront them wTorfe than re- fufe their Offer : And particularly their Venera¬ tion for Age, he fays, is well worthy of Imita¬ tion, for they pay a great Regard to their Elders of all Ranksf. FRANKLINj at his firft Meeting on the GwJNa. Bland, gave him a very agreeable Account of their good Nature ; telling him, that he would have no Occafion to trouble himfelf to fifh for his Subfiftence, for that the Natives would fup- ply him with that, or any thing elfe the Bland afforded, without his feeking, as they had offered to himfelf, but that he chofe both to fi(h and hunt to divert his Melancholy g. While the Author lay lick here h, they fup-Humanity. plied him w'ith all Kinds of Neceffaries: Every Day fome or other of the Inhabitants would come to fee how he did, and fcarce ever without a Fowl, or fome Fruit for him. The Governor himfelf ufed to vifit him almoft daily, and every tw7o or three Days would fend him a Quarter of a wild Goat, a Side, or a whole one. All this Time he was lodged by one of the chief Inha¬ bitants, and when he was recovered, he found fifty-one Fowls left of the Prefents which had been made him *. Another Time, he had a Couple of Quails brought him k, befides Milk very often, and Ba¬ nana Cakes, wrhich are made of Maiz and Ba¬ nanas mixed *. Fish makes a great Part of their Food, efpe-Diet, a Roberts's Voyage, p. 263. b Labatr in his Hiftory of Afrique Occidental, ridicules this Opinion of its Origin, as the Reader will fee hereafter : But it is now, we think, confirmed beyond Doubt, that if it be not the Sperm, it is fome greafy odoriferous Subllance, generated in a Bag near the I efticles of the Sperms Lett Whale. See the Philofopbical Lranfaftions, N° 387, p. 256, £ff feq. Alfo the Abridgment, vol. 7. p. 429- c Roberts's Voyage, ^.431, & feq. d About the Year 1700, this Bland feems not to have had fo many In¬ habitants, fince a Negro Native of St. Nicholas, who had been carried by the French Pirate Maringavin to St. John's, where he had lived three Years, told Roberts, there was about an hundred Inhabitants upon it twenty Years before. See his Voyage, p. 1 37. e Roberts's Voyage, /. 422. f Ibid, p.228. p. 19.7. h See before, p. 623. a. ‘ Roberts's Voyage, p. 258, if feq. k Ibid. 1 Ibid. p. 185. £ Ibid. p. 244. dally$