Amidst All
These Calamities Our Provisions Failed Us; We Had Little Hopes Of A
Supply, For We Found Neither Villages, Houses, Nor Any Trace Of A
Human Creature; And Had Miserably Perished By Thirst And Hunger Had
We Not Met With Some Fishermen's Boats, Who Exchanged Their Fish For
Tobacco.
Through all these fatigues we at length came to Jubo, a kingdom of
considerable extent, situated almost under the line, and tributary
to the Portuguese, who carry on a trade here for ivory and other
commodities.
This region so abounds with elephants, that though the
teeth of the male only are valuable, they load several ships with
ivory every year. All this coast is much infested with ravenous
beasts, monkeys, and serpents, of which last here are some seven
feet in length, and thicker than an ordinary man; in the head of
this serpent is found a stone about the bigness of an egg,
resembling bezoar, and of great efficacy, as it is said, against all
kinds of poison. I stayed here some time to inform myself whether I
might, by pursuing this road, reach Abyssinia; and could get no
other intelligence but that two thousand Galles (the same people who
inhabited Melinda) had encamped about three leagues from Jubo; that
they had been induced to fix in that place by the plenty of
provisions they found there. These Galles lay everything where they
come in ruin, putting all to the sword without distinction of age or
sex; which barbarities, though their numbers are not great, have
spread the terror of them over all the country. They choose a king,
whom they call Lubo: every eighth year they carry their wives with
them, and expose their children without any tenderness in the woods,
it being prohibited, on pain of death, to take any care of those
which are born in the camp. This is their way of living when they
are in arms, but afterwards when they settle at home they breed up
their children. They feed upon raw cow's flesh; when they kill a
cow, they keep the blood to rub their bodies with, and wear the guts
about their necks for ornaments, which they afterwards give to their
wives.
Several of these Galles came to see me, and as it seemed they had
never beheld a white man before, they gazed on me with amazement; so
strong was their curiosity that they even pulled off my shoes and
stockings, that they might be satisfied whether all my body was of
the same colour with my face. I could remark, that after they had
observed me some time, they discovered some aversion from a white;
however, seeing me pull out my handkerchief, they asked me for it
with a great deal of eagerness; I cut it into several pieces that I
might satisfy them all, and distributed it amongst them; they bound
them about their heads, but gave me to understand that they should
have liked them better if they had been red: after this we were
seldom without their company, which gave occasion to an accident,
which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first, turned
afterwards to our advantage.
As these people were continually teasing us, our Portuguese one day
threatened in jest to kill one of them. The black ran in the utmost
dread to seek his comrades, and we were in one moment almost covered
with Galles; we thought it the most proper course to decline the
first impulse of their fury, and retired into our house. Our
retreat inspired them with courage; they redoubled their cries, and
posted themselves on an eminence near at hand that overlooked us;
there they insulted us by brandishing their lances and daggers. We
were fortunately not above a stone's cast from the sea, and could
therefore have retreated to our bark had we found ourselves reduced
to extremities. This made us not very solicitous about their
menaces; but finding that they continued to hover about our
habitation, and being wearied with their clamours, we thought it
might be a good expedient to fright them away by firing four muskets
towards them, in such a manner that they might hear the bullets hiss
about two feet over their heads. This had the effect we wished; the
noise and fire of our arms struck them with so much terror that they
fell upon the ground, and durst not for some time so much as lift up
their heads. They forgot immediately their natural temper, their
ferocity and haughtiness were softened into mildness and submission;
they asked pardon for their insolence, and we were ever after good
friends.
After our reconciliation we visited each other frequently, and had
some conversation about the journey I had undertaken, and the desire
I had of finding a new passage into Aethiopia. It was necessary on
this account to consult their lubo or king: I found him in a straw
hut something larger than those of his subjects, surrounded by his
courtiers, who had each a stick in his hand, which is longer or
shorter according to the quality of the person admitted into the
king's presence. The ceremony made use of at the reception of a
stranger is somewhat unusual; as soon as he enters, all the
courtiers strike him with their cudgels till he goes back to the
door; the amity then subsisting between us did not secure me from
this uncouth reception, which they told me, upon my demanding the
reason of it, was to show those whom they treated with that they
were the bravest people in the world, and that all other nations
ought to bow down before them. I could not help reflecting on this
occasion how imprudently I had trusted my life in the hands of men
unacquainted with compassion of civility, but recollecting at the
same time that the intent of my journey was such as might give me
hopes of the divine protection, I banished all thoughts but those of
finding a way into Aethiopia.
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