with the natives, were surprised to see the folly of the poor people. For a
little bit of silver cut in the shape of a bird, we had two cows, and,
which was our loss, if it had been in brass, it had been still of more
value. For one of the bracelets made of chain-work, we had as much
provision of several sorts, as would fairly have been worth, in England,
fifteen or sixteen pounds; and so of all the rest. Thus, that which when it
was in coin was not worth sixpence to us, when thus converted into toys and
trifles, was worth a hundred times its real value, and purchased for us
anything we had occasion for.

In this condition we lived upwards of a year, but all of us began to be
very much tired of it, and, whatever came of it, resolved to attempt an
escape. We had furnished ourselves with no less than three very good
canoes; and as the monsoons, or trade-winds, generally affect that country,
blowing in most parts of this island one six months of a year one way, and
the other six months another way, we concluded we might be able to bear the
sea well enough. But always, when we came to look into it, the want of
fresh water was the thing that put us off from such an adventure, for it is
a prodigious length, and what no man on earth could be able to perform
without water to drink.

Being thus prevailed upon by our own reason to set the thoughts of that
voyage aside, we had then but two things before us; one was, to put to sea
the other way; viz., west, and go away for the Cape of Good Hope, where,
first or last, we should meet with some of our own country ships, or else
to put for the mainland of Africa, and either travel by land, or sail along
the coast towards the Red Sea, where we should, first or last, find a ship
of some nation or other, that would take us up; or perhaps we might take
them up, which, by-the-bye, was the thing that always ran in my head.