The Ships
Continued, As We Were Told Afterwards, Looking Out For Us For Two Or
Three Days; After Which, Concluding That We Had Inevitably Perished In
The Storm, They Made The Best Of Their Way For England.
Having been three days in great distress for want of food, we at length
landed on the coast and
Exchanged some of our wares with the negroes for
roots and such other provisions as they had, and then put to sea again
in search of the ships, which we still supposed were before us or to
leeward, wherefore we went down the coast to the eastwards. We continued
in this manner ranging along shore for twelve days, seeing nothing but
thick woods and deserts, full of wild beasts, which often appeared and
came in crowds at sunset to the sea shore, where they lay down or played
on the sand, sometimes plunging into the water to cool themselves. At
any other time it would have been diverting to see how archly the
elephants would fill their trucks with water, which they spouted out
upon the rest. Besides deer, wild boars, and antelopes, we saw many
other wild beasts, such as I had never seen before.
We often saw a man or two on the shore, who on seeing us used to come
off in their almadias or canoes; when casting anchor we offered such
wares as we had in the boat for fish and fresh water, or provisions of
their cooking, and in this way we procured from them roots and the fruit
of the palm tree, and some of their wine, which is the juice of a tree
and is of the colour of whey.
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