[ Keate / An Account of the Pelew Islands ]
Keate (1729 - 1797) was an English poet, painter, and writer.
The full title of this work is An Account of the Pelew Islands Situated in the Western Part of the Pacific Ocean Composed from the Journals and Communications of Captain Henry Wilson and Some of His Officers who, in August 1873, were There Shipwrecked in The Antelope, a Packet Belonging to the Hon. East India Company.
The "Pelew Islands" refers to the island nation now known as Palau, located several hundred miles east of the Phillipines in the South Pacific. Wilson and his crew were the first Europeans to spend substantial time there, although the islands had been previously claimed by Spain.
This book was first published in 1788 (Dublin: Luke White). Typography has been modernized.
The crew of The Antelope included a Newfoundland dog named Sailor; he is referred to several times in this account.
The first mention is on page 30:
Our people had in the tents two dogs, who were confined close to the place where their arms were deposited; one of them was a large Newfoundlander, who had been brought up at sea from a puppy, the other a spaniel; the Newfoundland dog had been the favourite of every one on board, being a most excellent guard, and had been taught during the voyage an infinite number of tricks, by which he afforded so much amusement to the whole crew, that there was not a sailor belonging to the Antelope who would not have risked his life for the dog.
The second mention occurs in a description of a "Pelew" prince, Arra Kooker, who possessed a remarkable talent for mimicry and would use it to delight the stranded Englishmen. Kooker was also quite taken with the crew's Newfoundland dog:
From the first time of his [Arra Kooker's] having seen the great Newfoundland, as before mentioned, he felt delight in going to him frequently, and in carrying him victuals; and by noticing him much, the dog naturally expressed great joy whenever he went to him. When he was brought on board the Antelope, in England, the dog was named Sailor, and now, familiarized to Arra Kooker, would, whenever he appeared, bark, jump, leap, and play his tricks; and his new acquaintance, when he wished to be amused, would imitate wonderfully well the barking, howling, jumping, and all the various demonstrations of joy of this poor animal. (51 - 52)
Kooker became so attached to the Newfoundland that he begged the Englishmen to leave him the dog when they prepared to depart in the vessel they had built. On the night before the English sailors left, Kooker held a dinner in their honor:
After dinner, Arra Kooker, who had, from the first day of his seeing the Newfoundland Dog, set his heart on the animal, and had often expressed a longing desire to possess it when our people went away, now renewed his felicitations: from the earnestness with which he begged it, and the care he assured them he would take of it, they were induced to make him happy, and relinquish all right in poor Sailor. (245 - 246)
When the English sailors left Pelau, they were accompanied by Lee Boo, the king's son, and the following anecdote — the final mention of Newfoundlands in the book — concerns his astonishment, while in Macao, at the sight of animals he had never seen before:
Having no quadrupeds at Pelew, the two dogs left there were the only kind he had seen; therefore the sheep, goats, and other cattle which he met with whilst at Macoa, were viewed with wonder. The Newfoundland dog, which had been given to his uncle Arra Kooker, being called Sailor, he applied the word Sailor to every animal that had four legs. — Seeing some horses in a stable, he called them - Clow Sailor, that is, Great Sailor. . . . (280)