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.
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