Note (return) — Chapter XIII · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY COMMODORE ROGGEWEIN, is 1721-1723.1

These islands are situated between the latitudes of 15° and 16° S. about twelve leagues west from Carlshoff,10 each of them appearing to be four or five leagues in compass. That on which the African was shipwrecked was named Mischievous Island, the two next it the Brothers, and the fourth the Sister All four islands were beautifully verdant, and abounded in fine tall trees, especially cocoas; and the crews found material benefit while here by refreshing themselves on the vegetable productions of these islands, by which many of them were surprisingly recovered from the scurvy. The Dutch found here vast quantities of muscles, cockles, mother-of-pearls, and pearl-oysters, which gave reason to expect that a valuable pearl fishery might have been established here. These islands are extremely low, so that some parts of them must be frequently overflowed; but the inhabitants have plenty of stout canoes, as also stout barks provided with sails and cables; and the Dutch found several pieces of rope on the shore, that seemed made of hemp. The natives were of extraordinary size, all their bodies being painted [or tatooed] with many colours, and had mostly long black hair, though some had brown hair even inclined towards red. They were armed with pikes or lances eighteen or twenty feet long, and kept in bodies of fifty or an hundred together, endeavouring to entice the Dutch to follow them into the interior, as if to draw them into an ambuscade, on purpose to be revenged for the loss they had sustained by the firing on the night of the shipwreck.