Great Quantities Of Canes Are Brought Down By These
Rivers, Insomuch That We Have Seen Abundance Of Them Twenty Or Thirty
Leagues Out At Sea.
This bay is open to a north-west wind, yet the force
of the sea is broken by means of a ledge of rocks.
We caught here smelts
of a foot long, and shrimps ten inches: The best fishing is near the
sandy shore off the low land, where the natives catch many with strong
nets. Within the woods we found infinite numbers of water-melons growing
on the low lands, which yielded us good refreshment. But we had nothing
from the rivers, except that one of our men was hurt by an alligator.
The water also was none of the best; but we got wood in plenty.
[Footnote 211: Probably meaning breakers. - E.]
This place did not seem populous, as we never saw above twenty natives
at any one time. The men were comely, stout, tall, and well-made, of a
tawny colour, wearing no cloathing excepting a girdle or short apron
made of rind of trees. Their beards were black and reasonably long; and
the hair of their heads likewise black and long, plaited and frizzled
very curiously; neither had their bodies any bad smell. They carry many
trinkets fastened to their girdles, adorned with alligators teeth, some
of them being hollow, in which they carry tallow to keep their darts
bright, which are their chief weapons, and of which each man carries a
small bundle, together with a fair lance, artificially headed with iron,
and kept as bright as silver. Their darts are of a very formidable and
dangerous shape, barbed on both sides; and each man carries a dagger
like a butcher's knife, very well made. They therefore showed no regard
for iron, and would not barter their commodities for any thing but
silver, in which we paid twelve-pence for a sheep, and 3s. 6d. for a
cow. They asked beads into the bargain, for which alone they would give
nothing except a little milk, which they brought down very sweet and
good in gourds.
Their cattle have great bunches on their fore-shoulders, in size and
shape like sugar-loaves, which are of a gristly substance and excellent
eating. Their beef is not loose and flabby like that at Saldhana, but
firm and good, little differing from that of England. Their mutton also
is excellent, their sheep having tails weighing 28 pounds each, which
therefore are mostly cut off from the ewes, not to obstruct propagation.
In the woods near the river there are great numbers of monkeys of an
ash-colour with a small head, having a long tail like a fox, ringed or
barred with black and white, the fur being very fine.[212] We shot some
of these, not being able to take any of them alive. There are bats also,
as large almost in the bodies as rabbits, headed like a fox, having a
close fur, and in other respects resembling bats, having a loud shrill
cry.
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