The Unknown Isle 5

and skirted all along with sandbanks, and the water is shallow. We went ashore in our longboats at several places, and among others at a fine river of little depth, where we caught sight of some Indians in their canoes who were crossing the river. On that account we named this river Canoe River. But we had no further acquaint- ance with the savages as the wind came up off the sea, and drove upon the shore, so that we deemed it advis- able to go back with our long-boats to the ships. We headed north-east until the next morning (Wednesday), the first day of July, at sunrise, at which hour came up fog with overcast sky, and we lowered the sails until about ten o’clock, when it brightened up and we had sight of cape Orleans and of another cape that lay about seven leagues north, one quarter north-east of it, which we named Indian cape. To the north-east of this cape, for about half a league, there is a very dangerous shoal and rocky bar. At this cape a man came in sight who ran after our long-boats, along the coast, making frequent signs to us to return towards the said (Indian) point. And seeing these signs we began to row towards him, but when he saw that we were returning, he started to run away and to flee before us. We landed opposite to him and placed a knife and a woollen girdle on a branch; and then returned to our ships. That day we coasted this shore some nine or ten leagues to try and find a harbour, but could not do so; for, as I have already mentioned, the shore is low and the water shal- low. We landed that day in four places to see the trees which are wonderfully beautiful and very fragrant. We discovered that there were cedars, yew-trees, pines, white elms, ash trees, willows and others, many of them unknown to us and all trees without fruit. The soil . where there are no trees is also very rich and is covered