we set saile shaping our course right North west to coast alongst the parts of Peru for so the generall mappes set out the land to lie both for that we might with conuenient speed full with the height of 30. deg being the place appointed for the rest of our fleete to re-assemble as also that no opportunity might be lost in the meane time to finde them out if it seemed good to God to direct them to vs. In this course we chanced the next day with two Ilands being as it were store houses of most liberall prouision of victualls for vs of birds yeelding not onely sufficient and plentifull store for vs who were present but enough to haue serued all the rest also which were absent Thence hauing furnished our selues to our content we continued our course Nouember 1. still Northwest as wee had formerly done but in going on we soone espied that we might easily haue beene deceiued and therefore casting about and steering vpon another point wee found that the generall mappes did erre from the truth in setting downe the coast of Peru for 12. deg at least to the Northward of the supposed straite no lesse then is the Northwest point of the compasse different from the Northeast perceiuing hereby that no man had euer by trauell discouered any part of these 12. deg and therefore the setters forth of such descriptions are not to be trusted much lesse honored in their false and fraudulent coniectures which they vse not in this alone but in diuers other points of no small importance We found this part of Peru all alongst to the height of Lima which is 12. deg South of the line to be mountainous and very barren without water or wood for the most part except in certaine places inhabited by the Spaniards and few others which are very fruitfull and commodious After we were once againe thus fallen with the land we continually coasted along til we came to the height of 37. d. or thereabout and finding no conuenient place of abode nor likelihood to heare any newes of our ships we ranne off againe with an Iland which lay in sight named of the Spaniards Mucho by reason of the greatnesse and large circuit thereof Nou. 25 At this Iland comming to anchor Nouemb. 25. we found it to be a fruitfull place and well stored with sundrie sorts of good things as sheepe and other cattell maize which is a kinde of graine whereof they make bread potatoes with such other rootes besides that it is thought to be wonderfull rich in gold and to want no good thing for the vse of mans life The inhabitants are such Indians as by the cruell and most extreame dealing of the Spaniards haue beene driuen to flie from the maine here to releeue and fortifie themselues With this people our Generall thought it meet to haue traffique for fresh victuals and water and for that cause the very same night of our arriuall there himselfe with diuers of his company went ashoare to whom the people with great courtesie came downe bringing with them such fruits and other victuals as they had and two very fat sheepe which they gaue our Generall for a present In recompence whereof hee bestowed vpon them againe many good and necessarie things signifying vnto them that the end of his comming was for no other cause but by way of exchange to traffique with them for such things as wee needed and they could spare and in particular for such as they had alreadie brought downe vnto vs besides fresh water which wee desired of them Herein they held themselues well contented and seemed to be not a little ioyful of our comming appointing where we should the next morning haue fresh water at pleasure and withall signifying that then also they would bring vs downe such other things as we desired to serue our turnes Nou. 26 The next day therefore very early in the morning all things being made readie for traffique as also vessels prepared to bring the water our Generall taking great care for so necessarie prouision repaired to the shoare againe and setting aland two of his men sent them with their Barricoes to the watering place assigned the night before Who hauing peaceably past on one halfe of the way were then with no small violence set vpon by those traiterous people and suddenly slaine And to the end that our Generall with the rest of his company should not onely be stayed from rescuing them but also might fall if it were possible into their hands in like manner they had layed closely behind the rockes an ambushment of as we guessed about 500. men armed and well appointed for such a mischiefe Who suddenly attempting their purpose the rocks being very dangerous for the boate and the sea-gate exceeding great by shooting their arrowes hurt and wounded euery one of our men before they could free themselues or come to die vse of there weapons to do any good The General himself was shot in the face vnder his right eye and close by his nose the arrow piercing a maruellous way in vnder basis cerebri with no small danger of his life besides that he was grieuously wounded in the head The rest being nine persons in the boate were deadly wounded in diuers parts of their bodies if God almost miraculously had not giuen cure to the same For our chiefe Surgeon being dead and the other absent by the losse of our vice-admirall and hauing none left vs but a boy whose good will was more then any skill hee had we were little better then altogether destitute of such cunning and helpes as so grieuous a state of so many wounded bodies did require Notwithstanding God by the good aduice of our Generall and the diligent putting too of euery mans helpe did giue such speedy and wonderfull cure that we had all great comfort thereby and yeelded God the glory thereof The cause of this force and iniurie by these Ilanders was no other but the deadly hatred which they beare against their cruell enemies the Spaniards for the bloudy and most tirannous oppression which they had vsed towards them And therefore with purpose against them suspecting vs to bee Spaniards indeed and that the rather by occasion that though command was giuen to the contrary some of our men in demanding water vsed the Spanish word Aqua sought some part of reuenge against vs. Our Generall notwithstanding he might haue reuenged this wrong with little hazard or danger yet being more desirous to preserue one of his owne men aliue then to destroy 100. of his enemies committed the same to God wishing this onely punishment to them that they did but know whom they had wronged and that they had done this iniurie not to an enemie but to a friend not to a Spaniard but to an Englishman who would rather haue beene a patron to defend them then any way an instrument of the least wrong that should haue beene done vnto them The weapons which this people vse
him but encreased them vsing him in a manner as another himselfe and as his most inmost friend lodging him with himselfe giuing him the second place in all companies in his presence leauing in his hand the state as it were of his owne person in his absence imparting vnto him all his counsells allowing him free liberty in all things that were reasonable and bearing often at his hands great infirmities yea despising that any priuate iniury should breake so firme a friendship as he meant towards him And therefore was he often times not a little offended euen with those who vpon conscience of their duty and knowledge that otherwise they should indeed offend disclosed from time to time vnto him how the fire increased that theatned his owne together with the destruction of the whole action But at length perceiuing that his lenity and fauours did little good in that the heat of ambition was not yet allayed nor could be quenched as it seemed but by blood and that the manifold practises grew dayly more and more euen to extremities he thought it high time to call these practises into question before it were too late to call any question of them into hearing And therefore setting good watch ouer him and assembling all his Captaines and gentlemen of his comapany together he propounded to them the good parts which were in the gentleman the great good will and inward affection more then brotherly which he had euer since his first acquaintance borne him not omitting the respect which was had of him among no meane personages in England and afterwards deliuered the letters which were written to him with the particulars from time to time which had beene obserued not so much by himselfe as by his good friends not onely at sea but euen at Plimmouth not bare words but writings not writings alone but actions tending to the ouerthrowe of the seruice in hand and making away of his person Proofes were required and alleaged so many and so euident that the gentleman himselfe stricken with remorse of his inconsiderate and vnkinde dealing acknowledged himselfe to haue deserued death yea many deathes for that he conspired not onely the ouerthrow of the action but of the principall actor also who was not a stranger or il-willer but a deare and true friend vnto him and therefore in a great assembly openly besought them in whose hands iustice rested to take some order for him that he might not be compelled to enforce his owne hands against his owns bowells or otherwise to become his owne executioner The admiration and astonishment hereat in all the hearers euen those which were his neerest friends and most affected him was great yea in those which for many benefits receiued from him had good cause to loue him but yet the generall was most of all distracted and therefore withdrewe himselfe as not able to conceale his tender affection requiring them that had heard the whole matter to giue their iudgements as they would another day answer it vnto their prince and vnto almightie God judge of all the earth Therefore they all aboue 40. in number the chiefest of place and judgement in the whole fleet after they had discussed diuersly of the case and alleaged whatsoeuer came in their mindes or could be there produced by any of his other friends with their owne hands vnder seale adiudged that He had deserued death And that it stoode by no meanes with their safety to let him liue And therefore they remitted the manner thereof with the rest of the circumstances to the generall This judgement and as it were assise was held a land in one of the Ilands of that port which afterwards in memory hereof was called the Iland of True iustice and iudgement Now after this verdict was thus returned vnto our generall vnto whom for his company her maiestie before his departure had committed her sword to vse for his safety with this word We doe account that he which striketh at thee Drake striketh at vs he called for the guilty party and caused to be read vnto him the seuerall verdicts which were written and pronounced of him which being acknowledged for the most part for none had giuen heauier sentence against him then he had giuen against himselfe our generall proposed vnto him this choice whether he would take to be executed in this Iland or to be sett aland on the maine or returne into England there to answer his deed before the Lords of her maiesties Councell He most humbly thanked the generall for his clemencie extended towards him in such ample sort and crauing some respit to consult thereon and so make his choice aduisedly the next day he returned this answer that Albeit he had yeelded in his heart to entertaine so great a sinne as whereof now he was iustly condemned yet he bad a care and that excelling all other cares to die a christian man that whatsoeuer did become of his clay body he might yet remaine assured of an eternall inheritance in a farre better life This he feared if he should be set a land among Infidels how he should be able to maintaine this assurance feeling in his owne frailtie how mighty the contagion is of lewde custome And therefore he besought the generall most earnestly that he would yet haue a care and regard of his soule and neuer jeopard it amongst heathen and sauage Infidells If he should returne into England he must first haue a ship and men to conduct it with sufficient victuals two of which though they were had yet for the third he thought no man would accompanie him in so bad a message to so vile an issue from so honorable a seruice But if that there were which could induce their mindes to returne with him yet the very shame of the returne would be as death or grieuouser if it were possible hecause be should be so long a dying and die so often Therefore he professed that with all his heart he did embrace the first branch of the generals proffer desiring onely this fauour that they might receiue the holy communion once againe together before his death and that he might not die other then a gentlemans death Though sundry reasons were vsed by many to perswade him to take either of the other wayes yet when he remained resolute in his former determination both parts of his last request were granted and the next conuenient day a communion was celebrated by Mr. Francis Fletcher preacher and pastor of the fleet at that time The generall himselfe communicated in this Sacred ordinance with this condemned penitent gentleman who shewed great tokens of a contrite and repentant heart as who was more deepely displeased with his owne act then any man else And after this holy repast they dined also at the same table together as cheerefully in sobriety as euer in their liues they had done aforetime each cheering vp the other and taking their leaue by drinking each to other as if some journey
George we found the body of a man so long dead before that his bones would not hold together being moued out of the place whereon they lay From these Ilands to the entrance into the South sea the frete is very crooked hauing many turnings and as it were shuttings vp as if there were no passage at all by meanes whereof we were often troubled with contrary windes so that some of our ships recouering a cape of land entring another reach the rest were forced to alter their course and come to anchor where they might It is true which Magellane reporteth of this passage namely that there be many faire harbours and store of fresh water but some ships had need to be fraughted with nothing else besides anchors and cables to finde ground in most of them to come to anchor which when any extreame gusts or contrary windes doe come whereunto the place is altogether subiect is a great hindrance to the passage and carrieth with it no small danger The land on both sides is very high and mountainous hauing on the North and West side the continent of America and on the South and East part nothing but Ilands among which lye innumerable fretes or passages into the South sea The mountaines arise with such tops and spires into the aire of so rare a height as they may well be accounted amongst the wonders of the world enuironed as it were with many regions of congealed clouds and frozen meteors wherby they are continually fed and increased both in height and bignes from time to time retaining that which they haue once receiued being little againe diminished by the heate of the sun as being so farre from reflexion and so nigh the cold and frozen region But notwithstanding all this yet are the lowe and plaine groundes verie fruitful the grasse greene and naturall the hearbs that are of very strange sorts good and many the trees for the most part of them alwaies greene the ayre of the temperature of our countrey the water most pleasant and the soile agreeing to any graine which we haue growing in our countrie a place no doubt that lacketh nothing but a people to vse the same to the Creators glory and the encreasing of the Church the people inhabiting these parts made fires as we passed by in diuers places Drawing nigh the entrance of the South sea wee had such a shutting vp to the Northwards and such large and open fretes toward the South that it was doubtfull which way wee should passe without further discouerie for which cause our generall hauing brought his fleete to anchor vnder an Iland himselfe with certaine of his gentlemen rowed in a boate to descrie the passage who hauing discouered a sufficient way towards the North in their returne to their ships met a cannowe vnder the same Iland where wee rode then at anchor hauing in her diuers persons This cannowe or boate was made of the barke of diuers trees hauing a prowe and a sterne standing vp and semicirclewise yeelding inward of one forme and fashion the body whereof was a most dainty mould bearing in it most comely proportion and excellent workmanship in so much as to our generall and vs it seemed neuer to haue beene done without the cunning and expert iudgement of art and that not for the vse of so rude and barborous a people but for the pleasure of some great and noble personage yea of some Prince It had no other closing vp or caulking in the seames but the stitchin with thongs made of Seale-skins or other such beast and yet so close that it receiued very little or no water at all The people are of a meane stature but well set and compact in all their parts and limmes they haue great pleasure in painting their faces as the others haue of whom we haue spoken before Within the said Iland they had a house of meane building of certaine poles and couered with skinnes of beast hauing therein fire water and such meate as commonly they can come by as seales mussels and such like The vessels wherein they keepe their water and their cups in which they drinke are made of barkes of trees as was their canow and that with no lesse skill for the bignesse of the thing being of a very formall shape and good fashion Their working tooles which they vse in cutting these things and such other are kniues made of most huge and monstrous mussell shels the like whereof haue not beene seene or heard of lightly by any trauellers the meate thereof beeing very sauourie and good in eating which after they haue broken off the thinne and brittle substance of the edge they rub and grinde them vpon stones had for the purpose till they haue tempered and set such an edge vpon them that no wood is so hard but they will cut it at pleasure with the same whereof we our selues had experience Yea they cut therewith bones of a maruellous hardnesse making of them fisgies to kill fish wherein they haue a most pleasant exercise with great dexteritie Sept. 6 The sixth of September we had left asterne vs all these troublesome Ilands and were entred into the South sea or Mare del zur at the cape whereof our Generall had determined with his whole company to haue gone ashore and there after a Sermon to haue left a monument of her Maiestie ingrauen in mettall for a perpetuall remembrance which he had in a readinesse for that end prepared but neither was there any anchoring neither did the wind suffer vs by any meanes to make a stay Onely this by all our mens obseruations was concluded that the entrance by which we came into this straite was in 52. deg the middest in 53. deg 15. m and the going out in 52. deg 30. m. being 150. leagues in length At the very entry supposed also to be about 10. leagues in bredth After we were entred ten leagues within it it was found not past a league in breadth farther within in some places very large in some very narrow and in the end found to be no straite at all but all Ilands Now when our Generall perceiued that the nipping cold vnder so cruell and frowning a Winter had empaired the health of some of his men hee meant to haue made the more hast againe toward the line and not to saile any farther towards the pole Antartick lest being father from the Sunne and neerer the cold we might happily be ouertaken with some greater danger of sickness But God giuing men leaue to purpose reserueth to himselfe the disposition of all things making their intents of none effect or changing their meanings oft times cleane into the contrary as may best serue for his owne glory and their profit Sept. 7 For September 7. the second day after our entrance into the South sea called by some Mare pacificum but prouing to vs rather to be Mare furiosum God by a contrary wind and intollerable tempest seemed to set
April 15. in 15. deg 40. min. was Guatulco so named of the Spaniards who inhabited it with whom we had some entercourse to the supply of many things which we desired and chiefely bread c. And now hauing reasonably as wee thought prouided our selues we departed from the coast of America for the present but not forgetting before we gate a-shipboard to take with vs also a certaine pot of about a bushell in bignesse full of ryalls of plate which we found in the towne together with a chaine of gold and some other iewells which we intreated a gentleman Spaniard to leaue behinde him as he was flying out of towne Apr. 16 From Guatulco we departed the day following viz. Aprill 16. setting our course directly into the sea whereon we sayled 500. leagues in longitude to gee a winde and betweene that and lune 3. 1400. leagues in all till we came into 42. deg of North latitude where in the night following we found such alteration of heate into extreame and nipping cold that our men in generall did grieuously complaine thereof some of them feeling their healths much impaired thereby neither was it that this chanced in the night alone but the day following carried with it not onely the markes but the stings and force of the night going before to the great admiration of vs all for besides that the pinching and biting aire was nothing altered the very roapes of our ship were stiffe and the raine which fell was an vnnatural congealed and frozen substance so that we seemed rather to be in the frozen Zone then any way so neere vnto the sun or these hotter climates Neither did this happen for the time onely or by some sudden accident but rather seemes indeed to proceed from some ordinary cause against the which the heate of the sun preuailes not for it came to that extremity in sayling but 2. deg farther to the Northward in our course that though sea-men lack not good stomaches yet it seemed a question to many amongst vs whether their hands should feed their mouthes or rather keepe themselues within their couerts from the pinching cold that did benumme them Neither could we impute it to the tendernesse of our bodies though we came lately from the extremitie of heate by reason whereof we might be more sensible of the present cold insomuch as the dead and sencelesse creatures were as well affected with it as our selues our meate as soone as it was remooued from the fire would presently in a manner be frozen vp and our ropes and tackling in few dayes were growne to that stiffenesse that what 3. men afore were able with them to performe now 6. men with their best strength and vttermost endeauour were hardly able to accomplish whereby a sudden and great discouragement seased vpon the mindes of our men and they were possessed with a great mislike and doubting of any good to be done that way yet would not our general be discouraged but as wel by comfortable speeches of the diuine prouidence and of Gods louing care ouer his children out of the scriptures as also by other good and profitable perswasions adding thereto his own cheerfull example he so stirred them vp to put on a good courage and to quite themselues like men to indure some short extremity to haue the speedier comfort and a little trouble to obtaine the greater glory that euery man was throughly armed with willingnesse and resolued to see the vttermost if it were possible of what good was to be done that way The land in that part of America bearing farther out into the West then we before imagined we were neerer on it then wee were aware and yet the neerer still wee came vnto it the more extremitie of cold did sease vpon vs. Iune 5 The 5. day of Iune wee were forced by contrary windes to run in with the shoare which we then first descried and to cast anchor in a bad bay the best roade we could for the present meete with where wee were not without some danger by reason of the many extreme gusts and flawes that beate vpon vs which if they ceased and were still at any time immediatly vpon their intermission there followed most vile thicke and stinking fogges against which the sea preuailed nothing till the gusts of wind againe remoued them which brought with them such extremity and violence when they came that there was no dealing or resisting against them In this place was no abiding for vs and to go further North the extremity of the cold which had now vtterly discouraged our men would not permit vs and the winds directly bent against vs hauing once gotten vs vnder sayle againe commanded vs to the Southward whether we would or no. From the height of 48. deg in which now we were to 38. we found the land by coasting alongst it to bee but low and reasonable plaine euery hill whereof we saw many but none verie high though it were in Iune and the Sunne in his neerest approch vnto them being couered with snow Iune 17 In 38 deg 30. min. we fell with a conuenient and fit harborough and Iune 17. came to anchor therein where we continued till the 23. day of Iuly following During all which time notwithstanding it was in the height of Summer and so neere the Sunne yet were wee continually visited with like nipping colds as we had felt before insomuch that if violent exercises of our bodies and busie imployment about our necessarie labours had not sometimes compeld vs to the contrary we could very well haue beene contented to haue kept about vs still our Winter clothes yea had our necessities suffered vs to haue kept our beds neither could we at any time in whole fourteene dayes together find the aire so cleare as to be able to take the height of Sunne or starre And here hauing so fit occasion notwithstanding it may seeme to be besides the purpose of writing the history of this our voyage we will a little more diligently inquire into the causes of the continuance of the extreame cold in these parts as also into the probabilities or vnlikelihoods of a passage to be found that way Neither was it as hath formerly beene touched the tendernesse of our bodies comming so lately out of the heate whereby the poores were opened that made vs so sensible of the colds we here felt in this respect as in many others we found our God a prouident father and carefull Physitian for vs. We lacked no outward helpes nor inward comforts to restore and fortifie nature had it beene decayed or weakened in vs neither was there wanting to vs the great experience of our Generall who had often himselfe proued the force of the burning Zone whose aduice alwayes preuailed much to the preseruing of a moderate temper in our constitutions so that euen after our departure from the heate wee alwayes found our bodies not as sponges but strong and hardned more able to beare out cold though
we came out of excesse of heate then a number of chamber champions could haue beene who lye on their feather-beds till they go to sea or rather whose teeth in a temperate aire do beate in their heads at a cup of cold Sack and sugar by the fire And that it was not our tendernes but the very extremitie of the cold it selfe that caused this sensiblenes in vs may the rather appeare in that the naturall inhabitants of the place with whom we had for a long season familiar intercourse as is to be related who had neuer beene acquainted with such heate to whom the countrey ayre and climate was proper and in whom custome of cold was as it were a second nature yet vsed to come shiuering to vs in their warme furres crowding close together body to body to receiue heate one of another and sheltring themselues vnder a lee bancke if it were possible and as often as they could labouring to shroude themselues vnder our garments also to keepe them warme Besides how vnhandsome and deformed appeared the face of the earth it selfe shewing trees without leaues and the ground without greennes in those moneths of Iune and Iuly The poore birds and foules not daring as we had great experience to obserue it not daring so much as once to arise from their nests after the first egge layed till it with all the rest be hatched and brought to some strength of nature able to helpe it selfe Onely this recompence hath nature affoorded them that the heate of their owne bodies being exceeding great it perfecteth the creature with greater expedition and in shorter time then is to be found in many other places As for the causes of this extremity they seeme not to be so deeply hidden but that they may at least in part be guessed at The chiefest of which we conceiue to be the large spreading of the Asian and American continent which somewhat Northward of these parts if they be not fully ioyned yet seeme they to come very neere one to the other From whose high and snow-couered mountaines the North and North-west winds the constant visitants of those coasts send abroad their frozen nimphes to the infecting of the whole aire with this insufferable sharpnesse not permitting the Sunne no not in the pride of his heate to dissolue that congealed matter and snow which they haue breathed out so nigh the Sunne and so many degrees distant from themselues And that the North and North-west winds are here constant in Iune and Iuly as the North wind alone is in August and September we not onely found it by our owne experience but were fully confirmed in the opinion thereof by the continued obseruations of the Spaniards Hence comes the generall squalidnesse and barrennesse of the countrie hence comes it that in the middest of their Summer the snow hardly departeth euen from their very doores but is neuer taken away from their hils at all hence come those thicke mists and most stinking fogges which increase so much the more by how much higher the pole is raised wherein a blind pilot is as good as the best director of a course For the Sunne striuing to performe his naturall office in eleuating the vapours out of these inferior bodies draweth necessarily abundance of moisture out of the sea bat the nipping cold from the former causes meeting and opposing the Sunnes indeuour forces him to giue ouer his worke imperfect and instead of higher eleuation to leaue in the lowest region wandring vpon the face of the earth and waters as it were a second sea through which its owne beames cannot possibly pierce vnlesse sometimes when the sudden violence of the winds doth helpe to scatter and breake through it which thing happeneth very seldome and when it happeneth is of no continuance Some of our marriners in this voyage had formerly beene at Wardhouse in 72. deg of North latitude who yet affirmed that they felt no such nipping cold there in the end of Summer when they departed thence as they did here in those hottest moneths of Iune and Iuly And also from these reasons we coniecture that either there is no passage at all through these Northerne coasts which is most likely or if there be that yet it is vnnauigable Adde hereunto that though we searched the coast diligently euen vnto the 48. deg yet found we not the land to trend so much as one point in any place towards the East but rather running on continually Northwest as if it went directly to meet with Asia and euen in that height when we had a franke wind to haue carried vs through had there beene a passage yet we had a smooth and calme sea with ordinary flowing and reflowing which could not haue beene had there beene a frete of which we rather infallibly concluded then coniectured that there was none But to returne Iune 18 The next day after our comming to anchor in the aforesaid harbour the people of the countrey shewed themselues sending off a man with great expedition to vs in a canow Who being yet but a little from the shoare and a great way from our ship spake to vs continually as he came rowing on And at last at a reasonable distance staying himselfe he began more solemnely a long and tedious oration after his manner vsing in the deliuerie thereof many gestures and signes mouing his hands turning his head and body many wayes and after his oration ended with great shew of reuerence and submission returned back to shoare againe He shortly came againe the second time in like manner and so the third time When he brought with him as a present from the rest a bunch of feathers much like the feathers of a blacke crow very neatly and artificially gathered vpon a string and drawne together into a round bundle being verie cleane and finely cut and bearing in length an equall proportion one with another a speciall cognizance as wee afterwards obserued which they that guard their kings person weare on their heads With this also he brought a little basket made of rushes and filled with an herbe which they called Tabáh Both which being tyed to a short rodde he cast into our boate Our Generall intended to haue recompenced him immediatly with many good things he would haue bestowed vpon him but entring into the boate to deliuer the same he could not be drawne to receiue them by any meanes saue one hat which being cast into the water out of the ship he tooke vp refusing vtterly to meddle with any other thing though it were vpon a board put off vnto him and so presently made his returne After which time our boate could row no way but wondring at vs as at gods they would follow the same with admiration The 3. day following viz. Ian. 21 the 21. our ship hauing receiued a leake at sea was brought to-anchor neerer the shoare that her goods being landed she might be repaired but for that we were to preuent any danger that
might chance against our safety our generall first of all landed his men with all necessary prouision to build tents and make a fort for the defence of our selues and goods and that wee might vnder the shelter of it with more safety what euer should befall end our businsse which when the people of the country perceiued vs doing as men set on fire to war in defence of their countrie in great hast and companies with such weapons as they had they came downe vnto vs and yet with no hostile meaning or intent to hurt vs standing when they drew neere as men rauished in their mindes with the sight of such things as they neuer had seene or heard of before that time their errand being rather with submission and feare to worship vs as Gods then to haue any warre with vs as with mortall men Which thing as it did partly shew it selfe at that instant so did it more and more manifest it selfe afterwards during the whole time of our abode amongst them At this time being willed by signes to lay from them their bowes and arrowes they did as they were directed and so did all the rest as they came more and more by companies vnto them growing in a little while to a great number both of men and women To the intent therefore that this peace which they themselues so willingly sought might without any cause of the breach thereof on our part giuen be continued and that wee might with more safety and expedition end our businesses in quiet our Generall with all his company vsed all meanes possible gently to intreate them bestowing vpon each of them liberally good and necessary things to couer their nakednesse withall signifying vnto them we were no Gods but men and had neede of such things to couer our owne shame teaching them to vse them to the same ends for which cause also wee did eate and drinke in their presence giuing them to vnderstand that without that wee could not liue and therefore were but men as well as they Notwithstanding nothing could perswade them nor remoue that opinion which they had conceiued of vs that wee should be Gods In recompence of those things which they had receiued of vs as shirts linnen cloth c. they bestowed vpon our generall and diuerse of our company diuerse things as feathers cawles of networke the quiuers of their arrowes made of fawne-skins and the very skins of beasts that their women wore vpon their bodies Hauing thus had their fill of this times visiting and beholding of vs they departed with ioy to their houses which houses are digged round within the earth and haue from the vppermost brimmes of the circle clefts of wood set vp and ioyned close together at the top like our spires on the steeple of a Church which being couered with earth suffer no water to enter and are very warme the doore in the most part of them performes the office also of a chimney to let out the smoake it s made in bignesse and fashion like to an ordinary scuttle in a ship and standing slopewise their beds are the hard ground onely with rushes strewed vpon it and lying round about the house haue their fire in the middest which by reason that the house is but low vaulted round and close giueth a maruelous reflexion to their bodies to heate the same Their men for the most part goe naked the women take akinde of bulrushes and kembing it after the manner of hempe make themselues thereof a loose garment which being knitte about their middles hanges downe about their hippes and so affordes to them a couering of that which nature teaches should be hidden about their shoulders they weare also the skin of a deere with the haire vpon it They are very obedient to their-husbands and exceeding ready in all seruices yet of themselues offring to do nothing without the consents or being called of the men As soone as they were returned to their houses they began amongst themselues a kind of most lamentable weeping crying out which they continued also a great while together in such sort that in the place where they left vs being neere about 3. quarters of an English mile distant from them we very plainely with wonder and admiration did heare the same the women especially extending their voices in a most miserable and dolefull manner of shreeking Notwithstanding this humble manner of presenting themselues and awfull demeanour vsed towards vs we thought it no wisedowe too farre to trust them our experience of former Infidels dealing with vs before made vs carefull to prouide against an alteration of their affections or breach of peace if it should happen and therefore with all expedition we set vp our tents and entrenched our selues with walls of stone that so being fortified within our selues we might be able to keepe off the enemie if they should so proue from comming amongst vs without our good wills this being quickly finished we went the more cheerefully and securely afterward about our other businesse Against the end of two daies during which time they had not againe beene with vs there was gathered together a great assembly of men women and children inuited by the report of them which first saw vs who as it seemes had in that time of purpose dispersed themselues into the country to make knowne the newes who came now the second time vnto vs bringing with them as before had beene done feathers and bagges of Tobà h for presents or rather indeed for sacrifices vpon this perswasion that we were Gods When they came to the top of the hill at the bottome whereof wee had built our fort they made a stand where one appointed as their chiefe speaker wearied both vs his hearers and himselfe too with a long and tedious oration deliuered with strange and violent gestures his voice being extended to the vttermost strength of nature and his words falling so thicke one in the neck of another that he could hardly fetch his breath againe as soone as he had concluded all the rest with a reuerend bowing of their bodies in a dreaming manner and long producing of the same cryed Oh thereby giuing their consents that all was very true which he had spoken and that they had vttered their minde by his mouth vnto vs which done the men laying downe their bowes vpon the hill and leauing their women and children behinde them came downe with their presents in such sort as if they had appeared before a God indeed thinking themselues happy that they might haue accesse vnto our generall but much more happy when they sawe that he would receiue at their hands those things which they so willingly had presented and no doubt they thought themselues neerest vnto God when they sate or stood next to him In the meane time the women as if they had beene desperate vsed vnnaturall violence against themselues crying and shreeking piteously tearing their flesh with their nailes from their cheekes in a