Orange Isle Is The Largest, But Barren, Rocky, And Uninhabited, And
Has No Anchorage On Its Coasts.
Monmouth and Grafton isles are both
hilly, but well inhabited.
Goat isle and Bashee isle are flat, the
former having a town. The hills in all these isles are rocky; but the
intermediate vallies are fertile in grass, plantains, bananas,
pine-apples, pompions, sugar-canes, potatoes, and some cotton, and are
well supplied with brooks of fresh water. They are also well stored
with goats and hogs, but have hardly any fowls, either wild or tame. The
natives are short and thick, with round faces and thick eye-brows, with
hazel-coloured eyes, rather small, yet larger than those of the Chinese.
Their noses are short and low; their mouths and lips middle-sized, with
white teeth; and their hair is thick, black, and lank, which they cut
short. Their complexion is of a dark copper colour, and they go all
bare-headed, having for the most part no clothes, except a clout about
the middle, though some have jackets of plantain leaves, as rough as a
bear-skin. The women have a short petticoat of coarse calico, reaching a
little below the knees, and both sexes wear ear-rings of a yellow metal
dug from their mountains, having the weight and colour of gold, but
somewhat paler. Whether it be in reality gold or not, I cannot say, but
it looked of a fine colour at first, which afterwards faded, which made
us suspect it, and we therefore bought very little.
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