islands, the inhabitants coming two leagues out to sea to meet them,
with all sorts of refreshments, which they exchanged for old iron, and
next morning 150 canoes came off with fruits and garden stuffs. On the
27th a good watering-place was found, where fifty soldiers were landed
to protect the seamen. In the beginning of February, the natives brought
them considerable quantities of rice, giving 70 or 80 pounds weight in
exchange for an old hatchet. On the 5th, by a general muster, 1260 men
were found to remain in the fleet, including 32 Spanish and Negro
prisoners, so that they had lost 409 since leaving Holland.

[Footnote 141: The relation of the voyage is too vague even to
conjecture what island is here meant, but from the direction of the
course towards Guam or Guaham it may possibly have been that now called
Dawson's island, about 600 leagues nearly east from Guam.--E.]

The island of Guam, Guaham, or Guaci, one of the group named by the
Spaniards _Islas de las Velas, Ladrones_, or _Mariane_ Islands, is in
lat 13° 40' N.[142] The soil is tolerably fertile producing vast
quantities of cocoas, and the natives grow rice in several places. The
Dutch procured here about 2000 fowls, but the natives would not part
with their cattle for any price. The people of this island are larger
than other Indians' strong and well-proportioned, and are mostly painted
red, the men going entirely naked, and the women having a leaf to cover
their nakedness. Their arms are _assagaies_, or javelins and slings,
both of which they use with great dexterity. Their canoes are very
convenient, and go before the wind at a great rate; neither are these
islanders afraid of putting to sea even in a storm; as, in case of their
vessels being overset, they turn them up again immediately, and bale out
the water. They were also very expert in cheating; for when the Dutch
came to examine the bags of rice they had bought so cheap, they found