The Negroes Value Their Gold As A Very Precious Thing,
Even At A Higher Rate Than The Portuguese, Yet We Got It In Barter Very
Reasonably For Things Of Very Small Value.
We continued here eleven days,
during which the caravels were continually resorted to by great numbers of
Negroes from both sides of the river, who came to see the novelties, and
to sell their goods, among which there were a few gold rings.
Part of
their commodities consisted of cotton cloth and cotton yarn; some of the
pieces being all white, some striped blue and white, and others again with
red, blue, and white stripes, all very well wrought and coloured. They
likewise brought civet for sale, the skins of civet-cats, monkies, large
and small baboons of various sorts; and these last being very plenty they
sold them cheap, or for something not exceeding ten _marquets_ in value,
for each; and the ounce of civet for what was not worth more than forty or
fifty marquets; not that they sold their commodities by weight, but I
judged the quantity to be about an ounce. Other Negroes brought various
sorts of fruit for sale, among which were many small wild dates, which
they seemed to think much of, but which our people thought not good, as
the taste was different from those of Europe: As for me, I would not
venture to eat any of them, lest they might have given me the flux, or
some other distemper. Our ships were every day crowded with people of
different aspects and languages[6], and the natives were continually going
up and down the river from one place to another, both men and women, in
their almadias. They have no sails, and propel their almadias entirely
with oars, which they use on both sides, all the rowers standing up. One
man stands at the stern, who rows sometimes on one side, sometimes on the
other, to keep the almadia steady in her course. They have no pins or row-
locks to steady their oars, but hold them fast with both hands; their oar
being a pole, like a half lance, seven feet and a half long, with a round
board like a trencher fastened to one end, and with these they row with
great safety and swiftness, in the mouths of their rivers, which are very
numerous; but they seldom go out to sea, or to any distance from their own
coasts, lest they should be taken by their neighbours and sold for slaves.
[1] There is some difficulty respecting the date of this second voyage. In
the former, Cada Mosto sailed from Portugal in March 1455. In the
course of his proceedings, the month of November is mentioned, and
some subsequent transactions are said to have happened in July, which,
on this arrangement, must necessarily have been of the year 1456. If,
therefore, the dates of the former voyage be accurate, the second
ought to have been dated in 1457.
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