Though Some Of The People Considered
These Creatures As Foreboding Misfortune, And Others Thought Them Bad Fish,
Yet We Were
All thankful for them on account of the want we were now in:
We had been eight months at sea,
So that all the flesh and fish we had
brought from Spain was consumed, and owing to the heat and moisture of the
atmosphere, the biscuit was become so full of maggots that many of the
people waited till night before they could eat the pottage made of it,
that they might not see the maggots; but others were so used to eat them
that they were not curious to throw them away, lest they might lose their
supper.
Upon Saturday the 17th of December we put into a large bay or port three
leagues to the eastwards of Pennon called Huiva by the Indians, where
we remained three days. We there saw the Indians dwelling upon the tops
of trees, like birds, laying sticks across the boughs upon which they
build a kind of huts. We conceived this might have been for fear of the
griffins which are in that country, or to be out of reach of their
enemies; for all along that coast the little tribes at every league
distant are great enemies to each other and perpetually at war. We sailed
from this port on the 20th with fair weather but not settled, for as soon
as we were got put to sea the tempest rose again and drove us into another
port, whence we departed the third day, the weather being somewhat mended,
but like an enemy that lies in wait for a man, it rushed out again and
drove us to Pennon, but when we hoped to get in there the wind came quite
contrary and drove us again towards Veragua.
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