110 A GREAT PIECE OF AMBERGRIS book ii
of our money.1
Sometimes pieces of ambergris of considerable size and weight are
found. In the year 1627 a Portuguese vessel sailing from Goa to the
Manillas, after it had passed the Straits of Malacca was overtaken by a
tempest which lasted many days and nights ; the sky was always
concealed, and it was impossible for the pilot to take observations.
Meanwhile the rice and other articles of food began to be exhausted,
and the crew discussed whether they should not throw the blacks who
were in the vessel into the sea in order to preserve the food for the
white men. They were about to carry this plan into execution, when one
morning the sun showed itself, and disclosed an island tolerably near,
but they were unable to anchor till the following day, the sea being
high and the wind unfavourable. There were in the vessel a Frenchman,
named Marin Renaud, of Orleans, and his brother, who on going on shore
found a river and, together with two Portuguese corporals and a
sergeant, went to bathe at its mouth. One of the corporals when bathing
perceived in the water a large mass which floated near the shore, and
which he concluded, on going near it, was a sort of spongy stone. So he
left it without another thought, as did the four others, who also went
to look at it and handled it without being able to make out what it
was. When he returned to the vessel the corporal reflected during the
night what this object, of which he had been unable to ascertain the
nature, could be, and having heard ambergris spoken of, began to think
that it might be it, in which he was not mistaken. The following day,
without saying anything to his comrades, he took a sack and got himself
put on shore, and going to the river as though he wished to bathe
again, found the piece of ambergris and carried it secretly to the
vessel, where he placed it in his box. He could not help communicating
the fact the same evening to Marin Renaud, who was unwilling to believe
at first that it was really ambergris, but having well considered it
thought at length that the corporal was right. Taking all chances, he
offered the piece to Marin for two pains of Chinese gold, and the golden
1 27 sols = 2*. 03d., or say 2*. 300,000 pardos therefore = £30,000. On the finding of ambergris in the Indian Ocean see Linschoten, ii. 92 f.
