At This Place
We Saw A Great Multitude Of People, And Being Anxious To Examine Them, And
To Establish A Friendly Intercourse, We Landed That Same Day With About
Forty Of Our Men In Good Array.
But the natives shewed themselves
extremely averse to any communication with us, and could not be allured to
a conference by any means.
At length a small number of them were induced
to come near by presents of bells, small mirrors, glass beads, and similar
toys, and a friendly intercourse was thus established. As night came on,
we left them and returned to the ships. At dawn of the following day, we
saw immense numbers of the natives on shore, men, women, and children:,
and could observe that they had all their household stuff along with them,
of which an account will be given hereafter. On our approach towards the
shore, many of the natives threw themselves into the sea, being most
expert swimmers, and came to meet us with much appearance of kindness, and
joined us in perfect confidence of security, as if we had been old
acquaintances, which gave us much pleasure.
The whole of these people, men as well as women, went entirely naked.
Though of rather small stature, they are exceedingly well proportioned,
their complexion being reddish brown, like the hair of lion; but if they
were always clothed, they would in my opinion become as white as our
people. They have no hair on any part of their bodies, except on the head,
where it is long and black; especially the women, who wear their long
black hair in a very comely manner.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 557 of 789
Words from 155337 to 155610
of 219607
