They Go
All Barefooted, Except The King, Who Wears Sandals.
His dress was as
follows:
A white net cap on his head; a scarlet vest with sleeves, but
open before; a piece of cloth round his middle; and another which hung
from his shoulders to the ground.
When at the town, the natives brought us cocoa-nuts for sale, of various
sizes, some as big as a man's head, each having within a quantity of
liquor proportioned to its size, and as much kernel as would suffice for
a man's dinner. They brought us also goats, hens, chickens, lemons,
rice, milk, fish, and the like, which we bought very cheap for
commodities; as two hens for a penny knife; lemons, cocoa-nuts, and
oranges for nails, broken pikes, and pieces of old iron. Fresh water is
scarce, being procured from holes made in the sands, which they lade out
in cocoa-nut shells as fast as it springs, and so drink. They brought
some of it to us, which we could not drink, it looked so thick and
muddy.
We sailed from Comoro on the 29th November, and on the 10th December, at
three a.m. we suddenly descried a low land, about a league a-head,
having high trees growing close to the shore. We took this at first to
be the island of Zanjibar, till one of the natives told us it was
Pemba.[277] We immediately stood off till day-break, when we again made
sail for the shore, along which we veered in search of a harbour or
anchoring place, and sent Mr Elmore in the boat to look out for a
convenient watering-place. On landing, some of the inhabitants demanded
in Portuguese who we were; and being told we were English, they asked
again what we had to do there, as the island belonged to the King of
Portugal? Answer was made that we knew not this, and only wanted a
supply of water. The ship came next day to anchor, near two or three
broken islands, close by Pemba, in lat. 5 deg. 20' S. The 12th, Mr Jordan
went ashore, and conversed with some of the people in Portuguese, but
they seemed not the same who had been seen before, as they said the king
of the island was a Malabar. Mr Jordan told them, though the ship was
English, that he was a Portuguese merchant, and the goods were belonging
to Portugal. They then said he should have every thing he wanted, and
sent a Moor to shew them the watering-place, which was a small hole at
the bottom of a hill, more like a ditch than a well. Having filled their
borachios, or goat-skins, they carried the Moor aboard, and going again
next day for water, set him ashore. The report he made of his good
usage, brought down another Moor who could speak a little Portuguese,
and said he was one of the king's gentlemen.
[Footnote 277:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 269 of 424
Words from 140128 to 140627
of 221842
