These Currents Are Very Dangerous, As They Deceive Most Pilots, And Some
Are So Little Curious, Contenting Themselves With Ordinary Experience,
That They Do Not Take The Trouble Of Seeking For New Expedients When
They Swerve, Neither By Means Of The Compass Nor By Any Other Trial.
The
first sign of approaching land was by seeing certain birds, which they
knew to be of India; the
Second was some sedges and boughs of
palm-trees; the third was snakes swimming at the surface of the water,
and a certain substance which they called _money_, as round and broad as
a groat-piece, and wonderfully printed or stamped by nature, as if it
had been coined money. These two last signs are so certain, that they
always see land next day, if the wind serve; which we did next day, when
all our water, for you know they have no beer in these parts, and
victuals began to fail us.
We came to Goa the 24th day of October, and were there received in a
most charitable manner. The natives are tawny, but not disfigured in
their lips and noses, like the Moors and Kafrs of Ethiopia. The lower
ranks go for the most part naked, having only a clout or apron before
them of a span long and as much in breadth, with a lace two fingers
breadth, girded about with a string, and nothing more; and thus they
think themselves as well dressed as we, with all our finery.
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