on the hills near our tents; which, as we judged, was the reason why they did not bring us more, as they thought we meant to inhabit there.  But, God be thanked, we were now well provided, and could very well pass without farther purchases.  The oxen were as large as ours in England, and very fat; and the sheep were many of them bigger than ours, of excellent flesh, sweet and fat, and to our liking much better than our English mutton, but having coarse hairy wool.

The people of this place are all of a tawny colour, of reasonable stature, swift of foot, and much given to pick and steal.  Their language is entirely uttered through their throats, and they cluck with their tongues in so strange a manner, that, in seven weeks which we remained here, the sharpest wit among us could not learn one word of their language, yet the natives soon understood every sigh we made them.  While we staid at this bay, we had such royal refreshing that all our men recovered their health and strength, except four or five.  Including these, and before we came in, we lost out of all our ships 105 men; yet, on leaving this bay,[103] we reckoned ourselves stronger manned than when we left England, our men were now so well inured to the southern climates and to the sea.

[Footnote 103:  In a marginal note, Purchas gives the lat. of Saldanha bay as 34 deg.  S. The place then called Saldanha bay was certainly Table bay, the entrance to which is in 33 deg. 50’ S. So that Purchas is here sufficiently, accurate.—­E.]

Sec. 2. Continuation of the Voyage, from Saldanha Bay to the Nicobar and Sombrero Islands.

The general ordered all our tents to be taken down on the 24th of October, and all our men to repair on board their respective ships, having laid in an ample supply of wood and water.  We put to sea the 29th of that month, passing a small island in the mouth of the bay, which is so full of seals and penguins, that if no better refreshment could have been procured, we might very well have refreshed here.  Over the bay of Saldanha there stands a very high and flat hill, called the Table; no other harbour on all this coast having so plain a mark to find it by, as it can be easily seen seventeen or eighteen leagues out at sea.  In the morning of Sunday the 1st November, we doubled the Cape of Good Hope in a heavy gale at W.N.W.

On the 26th November we fell in with the head-land of the island of St Lawrence or Madagascar, somewhat to the eastward of cape St Sebastian, and at five mile from the shore we had 20 fathoms; the variation of the compass being 16 deg., a little more or less.  In an east and west course, the variation of the compass serves materially, and especially in this voyage.[104] From the 26th November till the 15th December we plied to the eastwards, as nearly as we could, always striving to get to the island of Cisne, called Diego Rodriguez in some charts; but ever from our leaving Madagascar,