While Sailing Between The Island Of Conception
And Fernandina They Found A Man Paddling Along In A Small Canoe, Who
Had
with him a piece of their bread, a calabash full of water, a small
quantity of a red earth
Like vermilion, with which these people paint
themselves, and some dried leaves which they value for their sweet scent
and as being very wholesome; and in a little basket he had a string of
green glass beads and two small pieces of Portuguese coin: Whence it was
concluded that he had come from St Salvador past the Conception, and was
going in all haste to Fernandina to carry the news of the appearance of
the Christians. But as the way was long and he was weary, he came to the
ships and was taken on board, both himself and his canoe, and was
courteously treated by the admiral, who sent him on shore as soon as he
came to land, that he might spread the news. The favourable account he
gave caused the people of Fernandina to come on board in their canoes, to
exchange the same kind of things as had been done at the two former
islands; and when the boats went on shore for water, the Indians both
readily shewed where it was to be got, and carried the small casks full on
their shoulders to fill the hogsheads in the boats.
The inhabitants of Fernandina seemed to be a wiser and discreeter people
than those in the two former islands, as they bargained harder for what
they exchanged; they had cotton cloth in their houses as bed-clothes, and
some of the women wore short cotton cloths to cover their nakedness, while
others had a sort of swathe for the same purpose.
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