saw and conuerst with in nine moneths that I trauelled through the Wildernesse with the Portugals and a yeere and eleuen moneths that I passed with the Canibals themselues THe Canibals called Pories inhabite at the least one hundred miles within the land they are most like vnto the Wayanasses men of low stature they liue onely on Pine nuts and small Cocos that are as bigge as Apples but they haue shâ—lls like Wall-nuts somewhat harder the Indians call them Eyrires They are of good complexion and esteeme very much of clothes if they can get them the women are all painted with diuers colours as red blue and yellow they are in peace with the Portugals and warre with no Nation neither will they eate mans flesh if they haue any other meate they lie in little Nets made of barkes of trees they haue no houses but two or three boughs tyed together couered with Palme leaues if it happeâ— to raine In this part of the Countrie I saw great store of Leopards and Lions the Indians call the Leopard Iawaryle and the Lions Iawarosou and many great Cats of mountaine which the Indians call Marcayahite here you may haue of the Indians for a Knife or a Combe fiue or sixe Gallons of Balsome oile After you haue passed the famous Riuer of Paraeyua you shall come into a Countrie of Canibals called Molopaques they are much like vnto Dutchmen in bignesse very faire of complexion they haue all beards like other men so hath not any other kinde of Canibals except it bee here and there one Most of them doe couer their priuie parts they are very ciuill in their behauiour their Townes are very strong all circled with walls made of earth and great logs they haue houses seuerall euery man with his familie They haue one amongst them whom they call Morouishaua which is their King but we saw no difference betweene him and the rest but only the name and he had as I remember thirteene wiues and no other had so many Amongst these Canibals we found good store of gold the which they doe not esteeme neither doe they vse it for any thing but to tie on their fishing lines when they goe a fishing in the Riuer of Para where they take great store of good fish Para is beyond Paraeyua eightie leagues these Indians doe not worke in the mynes for gold as the Spaniards doe but onely take such peeces as they finde when the raine hath washt away the earth for where the mynes of gold are there are no trees but are drie Mountaines of black earth which the Indians call Taiuquara and the Mountaine where the Molopaques doe finde this great store of gold is called Eâ—epararange if these Canibals had the knowleâ—ge of God I might bolâ—ly say that there are not any in the world like them The women are goodly of person faire of complexion as our English women are they are very modest and ciuill in their behauiour you shall neuer see them laugh they are people very capable to conceiue any thing they haue their haire so long that they tie it about their middles with the barke of a tree wherewithall they couer their nakednesse they esteeme very much of it Their haire is of colours like our English women some yellow some white some browne the women that haue not long haire to couer their nakednesse doe weare a kinde of Furre which they call Sawyathwasoâ— These Canibals doe eate mans flesh I was not past nine or ten dayes among them therefore I cannot resolue you further of their customes In that time I was with them I saw no manner of Religion among them they doe keepe very good order obseruing times to eate their meate at noone and at night and that doth not any other Nation amongst them they are very cleanly in whatsoeuer they doe Then wee came to a faire champaine Countrie where wee found a kinde of Canibals called Motayas Assoone as these Canibals heard of our being in their Countrie they all left their houses and came to meet vs dancing and singing telling vs that they were very glad of our comming into their Countrie they brought Ginny Wheat Pepper and diuers kinde of rootes to present vs and craued our friendship desiring vs that we would aide them against the Tamoyes We desiring nothing more told them that to that purpose we were come Assoone as wee came to the houses of these Canâ—bals all the women would sit about vs and laying their hands on our bodies they would weepe most bitterly After that euery one of them would bring such victuals as they had some brought boyled Frogs others brought Serpents and Snakes which wee found very good other some brought Munkeis and a kind of wilde Dogge that they kill in the Mountaines The men brought vs mans flesh rosted drie as black as a coale and told vs that it was of a Tamoya that they had killed and desired vs that we would eate of it thinking they had presented vs a great and daintie dish When they saw that wee refused to eate mans flesh they fell a laughing and some of them said that we knew not what was good meat These Canibals are men of small stature browne of complexion they goe all naked they weare their haire as now we doe in England below their eares and so doe the women As their haire gâ—oweth long they burne it with fire making it equall so artificially that you cannot perceiue but that it was cut with Sizors They will not haue any haire grow on their eye-browes nor on their chin but still as it groweth they pull it away with a shell their food is Ginny wheat and Roots Frogs Snakes Serpents Crocodiles Monkeâ—s Dogs that they kill in the Wildernesse Leopards and Cats of Mountaine all this â—s good meat amongst them and we found them very good and were very glad when we could get them to eate Then we came to a kinde of Caniball called Lopos the Portugals call them Bilreros these Canibals are alwayes in the Mountaines of Pine trees and haue not any other thing to liue on I neuer saw any houses that they dwell in but bougâ—s tyed together with rines of trees these Canibals would come to vs and tell vs of many things and would goe with vs two or three dayes and then would run away from vs and many times when they did meet with any of our Indians or our Portugals they would take away such things as they had about them and send them away without any hurt to their persons As wee went through this Countrie we found many mynes of gold and amongst these Indians our Captaine got good store of it and many good stones In all America there is not a richer part then this but it is so farre within the Land and that Countrie is so populous that as yet neither Portugall nor Spaniard can inhabite there They are men of small stature
Rats and such like wormes they eate also all manner of Fruites sauing some that are poisonous This sustenance is ordinarily of that which the Countrie yeeldeth without husbandrie as wilde fowle flesh and fruites but they haue a certaine kinde of foode of a good substance and healthfull and many other pulses whereof hereafter shall mention be made Ordinarily they drinke not while they eate but after meate they drinke water or wine which they make of many kindes of fruites and rootes as hereafter shall be said of the which they drinke without measure or order euen till they fall downe They haue some particular daies wherein they make great feasts and all ends in drinking and they last two or three daies in the which they eate not but onely drinke and there be men that emptie a whole great vessell of wine That these drinkings may be more festiuall some goe about singing from house to house calling and inuiting all they finde for to drinke and be merrie These dancings last with musicke all the time of the drinking in the which they sleepe not but passe it all in drinking and when they are drunke they play many disorders and they breake one anothers head and take other mens wiues c. They giue no thankes before nor after meate to God nor wash their hands before meate and after meate they wipe them at their haire on their body or a poste They haue no towels nor tables they eate fitting or lying in their nets or cowring on the ground they eate their meate throwing it with their hand into the mouth and I omit many other particularities that they haue in their eating and drinking because these are the principall All this people haue for their beds certaine nets made of Cotten wooll and they sleepe in them hanging in the ayre These they make some wrought others of sundry colours and as they remaine in the ayre and haue no other couering or cloathes al waies in summer and winter they haue fire vnder them they rise not very early and goe to bed by times and in the mornings there is one chiefe man in their houses that lying in his net doth preach vnto them for the space of an houre how they are to goe to labour as their forefathers did and he appointeth them the time telling them what they are to doe and after he is vp continueth his preaching running through the Towne They tooke this custome from a bird which is like a Hawke which singeth in the morning and they call it the King and Lord of the other Birds and they say that euen as that Bird doth sing in the mornings to be heard of the rest so the principall should make those preachings and speeches to be heard of theirs All of them goe naked as well men as women and haue no kinde of apparnll and are nothing ashamed rather it seemeth that they are in the state of innocencie touching this behalfe by the great honestie and modestie they doe keepe among themselues and when any man speaketh with a woman he turneth his backe to her But to make themselues gallant they vse diuers inuentions painting their bodies with the iuice of a certaine fruite wherewith they remaine black making in their bodies many white stroakes after the fashion of round hose and other kinde of garments They enplume themselues also making Diadems and Bracelets and other very fine inuentions they esteeme very much all manner of fine Feathers they let no haire grow in the parts of their body but they pull them out onely the head excepted which they cut in many fashions for some weare them long with a halfe Moone shauen before and they say they tooke this vse from Saint Thomas and it seemeth that they had some notice of him though confusedly others make certaine kinde of crownes and circles that they seeme Friers the women all doe weare long haire and ordinarily blacke and the haire of the one and of the other is smooth when they are angrie they let their haire grow long and the women when they mourne doe cut their haire and also when their husbands goe a farre iourney in this they show their loue and loyaltie to them the vanitie they haue in their poling is so much that by the head the Nations are knowne Now alreadie some doe weare apparell as well men as women but they esteeme it so little that they weare it rather for fashion then for honesties sake and because they are commanded to weare it as it is well seene by some that sometimes come abroad with certaine garments no further then the nauell without any other thing and others onely with a cap on their heads and leaue the other garments at home the women make great accompt of Laces and Combes These Indians doe vse certaine Cottages or houses of timber couered with Palme tree leaues and are in length some of two hundred and three hundred spans and they haue two or three doores verie little and low They shew their valour in seeking timber and verie great posts and of great continnance and there be houses that haue fiftie sixtie or seuentie roomes of twentie or fiue and twentie quarters long and as manie quarters long and as many in breadth In this house dwelleth one principall man or more whom all the rest doe obey and ordinarily they are kinfmen In euery roome of these dwelleth a houshold with their children and family without any repartition betweene the one and the other and to enter in one of these houses is to enter into a laberinth for euery roome hath his fire and their nets hanging and their â—stuffe so that comming in all that they haue is in sight and some house hath two hundred persons and more The women when they are brought to bed they are deliuered on the ground doe not take vp the childe but the Father taketh it vp or some other person whom they take for their Gossip and in friendship they are as the Gossips among the Christians The Father doth cut the Nauell string with his teeth or with two stones knocking the one with the other and then they set themselues to fasting vntill the Nauell string falleth off which is ordinarily to the eight day and till it doth fall they leaue not their fasting when it falleth if it bee a man childe he maketh it a Bow with Arrowes and tieth it at the end of the Net and at the other end manie handfuls of hearbes which are the enemies which his sonne shall kill and eate These ceremonies being ended they make drinkings where with they all are merrie The women when they are deliuered doe presently goe and wash themselues in the Riuers and they giue the childe sucke ordinarily a yeere and an halfe not giuing it any other thing to eate They loue their children extraordinarily and beare them in certaine pieces of Nets which they call Tupiya
the American parcels the particular relations of which you haue had already and yeeld you the totall summe for a conclusion to our Spanish-Indian Peregrinations §. III. Extracts out of certaine Letters of Father MARTIN PERâ—Z of the Societie of Iesus from the new Mission of the Prouince of Cinoloa to the Fathers of Mexico dated in the moneth of December 1591. With a Letter added written 1605. of later Discoueries SInce my last Letters dated the sixth of Iuly among the Tantecoe on which day wee came into this Prouince of Cinoloa being guided by the Gouernour Roderigo del Rio we passed and trauelled through diuers Castles Countrie Villages Mines of Metall Shepheards houses Townes of Spaniards and certaine Signiories helping our neighbours by our accustomed duties so that wee were alwaies full of businesse Wee passed ouer in eight dayes the rough and hard and painefull Mountaine Tepesnan seeing no liuing creature saue certaine Fowles The cause whereof is the force of certaine Muskitos which trouble Horses whereof is exceeding abundance in all the Mountaine which were most noisome to our Horses There met vs certaine Cuimecht which are warlike Indians which offered vs bountifully such as they had without doing vs any harme There are almost an infinite number of these which wander dispersed vp and downe doing nothing else but hunt and seeke their food And it was told vs that three thousand of them were assembled in a part of the hill which besought the Gouernour that he would cause them to be taught and instructed in the Christian Faith Their Minister which was but onely one came to visite vs. There met vs also a certaine Spanish Captaine which had the gouernment of six Castles or Countrie Villages in a part of the Mountaine who knowing well enough what the societie ment by these missions wrote vnto the father Visitor requesting him to grant him one of the Fathers by whose trauell twenty thousand soules might be instructed which he would recommend vnto him These and other Villages we passed by not without griefe because it was resolued already among vs that we should stay in no other place but in this Prouince A few dayes before our comming thither we wrote to six or seuen Spaniards which dwell there without any Priest and heard Masse onely once a yeare to wit when any Priest dwelling thirtie or forty leagues off came vnto them to confesse and absolue them being penitent who being accompanied with most of the chiefe Indians met vs with exceeding great ioy and gladnesse aboue twenty leagues distant from their dwellings and accompanied vs vnto the second Riuer of this Prouince wherein the towne of Saint Philip and Iacob standeth This Prouince is from Mexico aboue three hundred leagues and is extended towards the North. On the right hand it hath the Mountaines of the Tepesuanes on the left hand the Mediterrane Sea or the Gulfe of California on another part it stretcheth euen to Cibola and California which are Prouinces toward the West very great and well inhabited On one side which regardeth the North new Mexico is but two dayes iourney distant from the vttermost Riuer of this Prouince as we were enformed by the Gouernour which is so famous and renowned and so full of Pagan superstition whereof diuers haue often written They measure and diuide the Prouince of Cinaloa with eight great Riuers which runne through the same The reason of that diuision is this because all the Castels and Villages of the inhabitants are setled neere the bankes and brinkes of the Riuers which are replenished with fish and which in short space doe fall into the Mediterranâ— Sea or Gulfe of California The soyle is apt for tillage and fruitfull and bringeth forth such things as are sowne in it The ayre is cleere and wholesome The Pesants and husband men reape twice a yeare and among other things store of Beanes Gourds Maiz and such kinde of Pulfe whereof wee and they eate so plentifully that there is no speech of the rising of the price of things or of Famine nay rather a great part of the old crop perisheth oftentimes and they cast away their old Maiz to make roome for the new They haue great store of Cotten Wooll whereof they make excellent cloathes wherewith they are apparelled Their apparell is a peece of cloath tyed vpon their shoulders wherewith as with a cloak they couer their whole body after the manner of the Mexicans True it is that though they be all workemen yet for the most part of the yeare they are not couered but goe naked yet all of them weare a broad girdle of the said Cotten cloath cunningly and artificially wrought with figures of diuers colours in the same which the shels of Cockles and Oysters ioyned artificially with bones doe make Moreouer they thrust many threds through their eares whereon they hang earerings for which purpose they bore the eares of their children as soone as they be borne in many places and hang eare-rings round Stones and Corall in them so that each eare is laden with fiftie of these Ornaments at least for which cause they alwayes sleepe not lying on their sides but with their face vpward The women are decently couered from their waste downeward being all the rest naked The men as well as the women weare long haire the women haue it hanging downe their shoulders the men often bound vp and tyed in diuers knots they thrust Corals in it adorned with diuers feathers and cockle shels which adde a certaine beautie and ornament to the head They weare many round Beades of diuers colours about their neckes They are of great stature and higher then the Spaniards by a handfull so that as wee sate vpright vpon our horses without standing on tiptoe they easily could embrace vs. They are valiant and strong which the warres which they had with the Spaniards doe easily shew wherein though they sustained no small damages yet were they not vnreuenged nor without the bloud of their aduersaries When they would fight resolutely for their vttermost libertie they denounced and appointed the day of battell Their weapons are Bowes and poysoned Arrowes and a kinde of clubbe of hard wood wherewith they neede not to strike twice to braine a man They vse also â—ertaine short iauelins made of red wood so hard and sharpe that they are not inferiour to our armed speares And as fearefull and terrible as they be to their enemies so quiet and peaceable are they among themselues and their neighbours and you shall seldome finde a quarrellour or contentious person The Spaniards after certaine conflicts at length made friendship with them leauing their Countrie to them but those eight Spaniards whom I mentioned before liue quietly among them and though they be called Lords yet are they contented with such things as the Indians giue them offering no violence nor molestation to any man Vpon our comming into these Countries the
and straight of a comely proportion and of a colour browne when they are of any age but they are borne white Their haire is generally blacke but few haue any beards The men weare halfe their heads shauen the other halfe long for Barbers they vse their women who with two shels will grate away the haire of any fashion they please The women are cut in many fashions agreeable to their yeares but euer some part remaineth long They are very strong of an able body and full of agilitie able to endure to lye in the woods vnder a tree by the fire in the worst of winter or in the weedes and grasse in Ambuscado in the Summer They are inconstant in euery thing but what feare constraineth them to keepe Craftie timerous quicke of apprehension and very ingenious Some are of disposition fearefull some bold most cauteloâ—s all Sauage Generally couetous of Copper Beads and such like trash They are soone moued to anger and so malicious that they seldome forget an iniury they seldome steale one from another least their Coniurers should reueale it and so they be pursued and punished That they are thus feared iâ— certaine but that any can reueale their offences by coniuration I am doubtfull Their women are carefull not to be suspected of dishonesty without the leaue of their husbands Each houshold knoweth their owne lands and gardens and most liue of their owne labours For their apparell they are sometime couered with the skins of wilde Beasts which in winter are dressed with the haire but in summer without The better sort vse large mantels of Deare skins not much differing in fashion from the Irish Mantels some imbrodered with white Beades some with Copper other painted after their manner But the common sort haue scarce to couer their nakednesse but with grasse the leaues of trees or such like Wee haue seene some vse mantels made of Turkie-feathers so prettily wrought and wouen with threds that nothing could be discerned but the feathers That was exceeding warme and very handsome But the women are alwayes couered about their middles with a skin and very shamefac't to be seene bare They adorne themselues most with Copper Beads and paintings Their women some haue their legs hands brests and face cunningly imbrodered with diuers works as Beasts Serpents artificially wrought into their flesh with blacke spots In each eare commonly they haue three great holes whereat the hang Chaines Bracelets or Copper Some of their men weare in those holes a small greene and yellow coloured Snake neere halfe a yard in length which crawling and lapping her selfe about his necke oftentimes familiarly would kisse his lips Others weare a dead Rat tied by the taile Some on their heads weare the wing of a bird or some large feather with a Rattell Those Rattels are somewhat like the chape of a Rapier but lesse which they take from the taile of a Snake Many haue the whole skin of a Hawke or some strange fowle stuffed with the wings abroad Others a broad peece of Copper and some the hand of their enemy dried Their head and shoulders are painted red with the roote Pocone braied to powder mixed with Oyle this they hold in summer to preserue them from the heate and in winter from the cold Many other formes of paintings they vse but he is the most gallant that is the most monstrous to behold Their Buildings and habitations are for the most part by the Riuers or not farre distant from some fresh Spring Their Houses are built like our Arbors of small yong sprigs bowed and tied and so close couered with mats or the barks of trees very hand somely that notwithstanding either winde raine or weather they are so warme as stoues but very smoakie yet at the top of the house there is a hole made for the smoake to goe into right ouer the fire Against the fire they lye on little hurdles of Reedes couered with a mat borne from the ground a foote and more by a Hurdle of wood On these round about the house they lye heads and points one by thother against the fire some couered with Mats some with Skins and some starke naked lye on the ground from six to twenty in a house Their Houses are in the midst of their Fields or Gardens which are small plots of grounds some twenty some forty some a hundred some two hundred some more some lesse sometimes from two to a hundred of those houses together or but a little seperated by groues of trees Neare their habitations is little small wood or old trees on the ground by reason of their burning of them for fire So that a man may gallop a horse amongst these woods any way but where the creekes or Riuers shall hinder Men Women and Children haue their seuerall names according to the seuerall humour of their Parents Their women they say are easily deliuered of child yet doe they loue children very dearely To make them hardy in the coldest mornings they wash them in the Riuers and by painting and ointments so tan their skins that after a yeare or two no weather will hurt them The men bestow their times in fishing hunting warres and such manlike exercises scorning to be seene in any womanlike exercise which is the cause that the women be very painfull and the men often idle The women and children doe the rest of the worke They make Mats Baskets Pots Morters pound their corne make their bread prepare their victuals plant their corne gather their corne beare all kinde of burdens and such like Their fire they kindle presently by chasing a dry pointed sticke in a hole of a little square peece of wood that firing it selfe will so fire mosse leaues or any such like dry thing that will quickly burne In March and Aprill they liue much vpon their fishing wares and feede on fish Turkies and Squirrels In May and Iune they plant their fields and liue most of Acornes Walnuts and fish But to mend their diet some disperse themselues in small companies and liue vpon fish Beasts Crabs Oysters land Tortoyses Strawberries Mulberries and such like In Iune Iuly and August they feede vpon the rootes of Tocknough Berries Fish and greene Wheate It is strange to see how their bodies alter with their diet euen as the Deere and wilde Beasts they seeme fat and leane strong and weake Powhatan their great King and some others that are prouident rost their fish and flesh vpon hurdles as before is expressed and keepe it till scarce times For fishing and hunting and warres they vse much their Bowe and Arrowes They bring their Bowes to the forme of ours by the scraping of a shell Their Arrowes are made some of straight yong sprigs which they head with bone some two or three inches long These they vse to shoote at Squirrels on trees Another sort of Arrowes they vse made of reedes these are peeced
Crocodile hath great scales and long clawes very vgly to be seene The Portugals when they know where any of these great ones are doe fish for them with a câ—aine and a great Iron hooke and for bait they tie a Cock or a Hen to the hooke they take this paines to take him because his Cods are very great and better then any muske At this place the Mountaines are so full of Crab-lice that wee knew not what to doe they would stick in our skins that we could not get them off but were faine to take drie straw and singe our selues as you would singe Hogs and so rid our selues of them Here also wee had great store of wilde Hogs and a kinde of wilde Fowle as bigge as Turkies called Mutas Abausanga is the name of a valiant Caniball that is adioyning hard by the Wataquazes these Canibals are a kinde of the Tamoyes Some twentie yeeres agone there was a Gouernour among them called Mendesaa in the Riuer of Ianuarie who made warre against the Tamoyes and in the end ouer run all their Countrie or Prouince onely this Abausanga remayned hidden in Dungeons and grâ—at Holes with some fortie or fiftie of his Couâ—trimen It was our chance going to warre with the Wataquazes to come through this Towne and there we had newes by Abausangas people that he was at warre against the Wataquazes whereupon we made Spies to see if we could take him before that we would set vpon the Wataquazes One euening we heard a great noise of Canibals then the Captaine sending out some Spies my selfe being one wee saw that it was Abausanga and his companie that had taken fiue Wataquazes and with great stirre were killing of them to eate Assoone as we had espyed all that we could wee returned againe to the Captaine and told him what we had seene and that night cirâ—led Abausanga and tooke him priâ—oner with sixtie young men of his companie wee asked of him our best course to warre against the Wataquazes he told vs that he was rather to take our aduice then we to aske his that he vsed no policie but to fight in open field and if we would we should see how he made warre agâ—iâ—st his enemies the nexâ— day we being hard by the Inhabitants of the Wataquazes Abausanga came forth and ioyned all his companie together with leaue of our Captaine and assoone as they were all readie vvith their bowes and arrowes hee ran into the thickest of his enemies with all his companie where eighteene of his companie were presently killed and most of them sore hurt he himselfe being shot in one and twentie parts In our sight he killed three Wataquazes before hee fell the Portugals kept still by the woods side and with their peeces killed one hundred and thirtie Wataquazes the wilde people were so amazed when they heard our peeces goe off that they thought the Deuill had beene amongst them and euery one began to flie as fast as he could the Portugals following them found Abausanga in the field hurt as you haue heard This Abausanga assoone as he perceiued the Portugals to stand amazed at him desired them to tell him somewhat of God for he said that Frenchmen had told him that there was a God and that he which beleeued in him should be saued The Portugals telling him of their faith hee said that hee beleeued in that God and desired to bee baptised and had his name giuen him Iohn For the space of two houres that this Indian liued hee did nothing but call vpon God and so ended his life being one hundred and twentie yeeres of age as he shewed vs by signes The Wayanasses inhabite eighteene leagues Southward of the Riuer of Ianuarie at a place called by the Portugals Ilha Grande that is to say The great Iland These Canibals are of low stature great bellies and broad feet very Cowards of a reasonable good complexion They doe not carue their bodies neitheâ—r doe they glorie so much to eate mans flesh as the Tamoyes the Tomymenos and other Canibals doe The Women are bigge in the body and very vgly but they haue very good faces The Women of this Countrie doe paint their bodies and faces with a thing called in their language Urucu it groweth in a round Cod like a beane and that maketh a red inke like Oker which maketh them seeme most vgly The haire both of men and women groweth long by the sides and on the crowne all shauen like Franciscan Friars These Canibals lye in Nets made of barkes of trees and likewise when they trauell through the Wildernesse such prouision as they haue they carrie in little Nets at their backs they are neuer without Tabacco they esteeme it more then any thing that they haue in their Countrie and with it do heale their wounds when they are hurt When the Portugals doe stand in need of slaues they doe come to Ilha Grande and there they shall be sure to meet with some of the Wayanasses a fishing then they shew them Kniues Beades and Glasses telling them what they would haue for merchandise and presently they will goe to a place called in their language Iawarapipo which is their chiefest Towne and from thence bring all such as they meane to sell to the Sea side and as good cheape as you can you may buy of them The Topinaques inhabite at Saint Vincents they are men of good stature and of reasonable good complexion their women are all painted with diuers colouâ—s and on their heads they weare a thin barke of a tree like a Ribband the Canibals eate mans flesh as other Canibals doe they adore no Idoll neither haue they any kinde of Religion onely when they kill any man they all paint their bodies with a kinde of fruit called Ianipauo and all their heads are set with feathers and great stones in their vnder-lips with Rattles in their hands and thus they will dance for three dayes together I was amased to see how they would drinke a filthy drinke without breaking of their bellies and asked them how they were able to stand so long and drinke so much of that filthy drinke they answered me that Tabacco did make them as fresh as if they had done nothing Among these Canibals there is great store of gold in many Hills hard by the Sea side and now the Portugals haue some of those places I would wee had the rest Here I end to discourse any farther of the Canibals that dwell by the Sea side till I haue told you of such Nations as I met withall when I went through the Countrie and how I came againe to the Sea I haue told you in the first booke of my trauell how that fiue or sixe yeeres after I had beene taken by the Portugals I went to warre against the Canibals with the Portugals Now by the grace of God as neere as I can I haue told you of all the Nations that I
without hauing any remedie of cure §. II. Of their manner of killing and eating of humane flesh and of their creating Gentlemen OF all the honours and pleasures of this life none is so great for this people as to kill and get a name on the heads of their Aduersaries neither are there among them any Feasts comparable to those which they make at the death of those which they kill with great Ceremonies which they doe in this manner Those which beeing taken in the Warre are appointed to die came presently from thence with a token which is a small coard about his necke and if hee bee a man that may runnne away he hath one hand tied to his necke vnder his chinne And before they come to the Townes that are by the way they paint their eie-lids eie-browes and their beards polling them after fashion and enpluming them with Yellow feathers so well placed that yee can see no haire which makes them so gallant as the Spaniards in their rich Apparell and so they goe sharing their victorie whereby soeuer they passe When they come to their owne Countrie the women came out to receiue them showting altogether and striking themselues on the mouth which is a common entertainment among them without any other vexation or imprisonment except that they weare about the necke a round collar like a coard of a good bignesse as hard as a sticke In this collar they beginne to weaue a great manie fathomes of small coard as long as a womans haire fastened aboue with a certaine knot and loose vnderneath and so it goeth from eare to eare behind the backe horrible to looke on And if it be on the Frontier where hee may runne away they put him in stead of shackels below the knees a string of threed twisted verie hard which is too weake for any Knife but that they haue Keepers that goe not one moment from him whether he goe about the houses to the Woods or by the Fields for he hath libertie for all this and commonly the keeper is one that is giuen him for wife and also for to dresse his meate with the which if his Masters doe giue him no meate as the custome is he taketh a Bow and Arrowes and shooteth at the first Henne he seeth or at a Ducke be it whosesoeuer and none doth contradict him and so he waxeth fat neither breaking therefore his sleepe his laughter or his pleasure as the rest and some are as contented though they are to bee eaten that in no wise they will consent to be ransomed for to serue for they say that it is a wretched thing to die and lie stinking and eaten with Wormes These women are commonly faithfull in their charge for they receiue honour thereby and therefore manie times they are young and daughters of the chiefe especially if their brothers are to be the slaiers For those which haue not this interest manie times affect them in such manner that not onely they giue them leaue to runne away but they also doe goe with them neither haue the women any other punishment if they bee taken againe then a few strokes and sometimes they are eaten of those same to whom they gaue life The time when he shall die being determined the women beginne to make vessels that is Bowles Traies and Pots for the Wines so great that euerie one will hold a pipe This being readie as well the principall as the rest doe send their Messengers to inuite others from sundrie places against such a Moone about tenne or twelue leagues compasse or more for the which none doth excuse himselfe The guests doe come in Mogotes or troupes with their wiues and children and all of them doe enter the Towne with Dancers and all the time the people are a gathering together there is Wine for the guests for without it all the other entertainments are nothing worth The people being assembled the Feasts beginne some daies before according to the number and certaine ceremonies preceding and euerie one lasteth a day First they haue for this certaine coards of Cotton-wooll of a reasonable bignesse not twisted but wouen of a verie faire worke it is a thing among them of great esteeme and none hath them but some principall men and according to their finenesse and workmanship and their taking pleasure it is to be beleeued that they are not made in a yeere These are alwaies verie safely kept and are carried to the place with great feast great noise in certain traies where a Master of these things doth tie two knots within from that which one of the points do run in such maner that in the midst there remaineth a noose These knots are so fine that few are found that can make them for some of them haue ten casts about fiue crossing ouer the other fiue as if one should crosse the fingers of the right hand ouer the left after they die them with thewater of a white clay like lime let them drie On the second day they bring a great number of burdens of wilde Canes or Reeds as long as Lances or more and at night they set them on fire in a round heape the points vpward leaning one to another and so they make a great and faire high bone-fire round about the which are men and women dancing with sheaues of arrowes at their backe but they goe very swiftly for hee that is to die which seeth them better then hee is seene because of the fire catcheth hold of all that he can and catcheth them and they beeing many hee misseth few times At the third day they make a dance of men and women all of them with pipes of Canes and all of them at once doe stampe on the ground now with one foot then with the other all together without missing a stroke and obseruing the same measure they play on their pipes and there is no other singing nor speaking they being many and the Canes some bigger and some smaller besides the resounding in the Woods they make a Hel-seeming harmonie but they abide it as if it were the sweetest Musicke in the World And these are their feasts besides others which they intermingle with many graces and soothsayings On the fourth day they carrie the captiued enemie as soone as the day breakes to wash him at a Riuer and they while the time that when they doe returne it may be broad day light comming i 〈…〉 o the Towne the Prisoner goeth presently with a watchfull eye for hee knoweth not out of what house or doore a valiant man is to come out to him that is to catch hold of him behind For as all their happinesse doth consist in dying valiantly and the ceremonie that followeth is now the neerest vnto death as he which is to lay hold of him doth shew his forces in ouer-comming him himselfe alone without any other helpe so he will shew courage and force in resisting him and sometimes he doth
Councell of Indies receiuing information against him arrested all his treasure aforesaid which filled him with such griefe that hee died within few dayes after Loyola which had taken him and was husband to his brothers daughter was sent generall to Chili where the Araucans hauing spies on him when hee had sent most of his Souldiers to garrisons with voices of birds and beasts gaue signes to their fellowes which came in with a great power of Indians and killed him and all his Spaniards Anno 1603. Thus haue wee fleeted the creame of the Incas Historie of the Incas the Spaniards whose acts hee principally handleth in his second part haue enough of their owne to relate their acts some of which also follow and others haue gone before to shew how they conquered and vsed their conquests of and in the New World The greatnesse of that State and strangenesse of the rising proceeding and ruine of the Incas made mee the larger though all this be not so much in words as one of the seuenteene Bookes out of which it is gathered It may bee of good vse both to vnderstand the Spanish Indian Historians as Acosta c. and in many things in which for want of Language and acquaintance with the Incas they haue receiued and deliuered errours to amend them and in this kinde for antiquities is a iewell such as no other Peru Merchant hath set to sale If I haue seemed confused and without exact method I haue followed my Authour who setting forth the former part Anno 1608. published the other 1617. hauing receiued of some later occurrents better intelligence Wee will now leaue this Inca-Spaniard and briefly recount from the Spanish Actors and Authors what passed in those first and great mutations Ramusio published these three following Discourses at large which wee haue thus contracted CHAP. XV. Briefe Notes of FRANCIS PIZARRO his conquest of Peru written by a Spanish Captaine therein employed A Certaine Spanish Captaine whose name is not added to his Tractate writeth that in Februarie 1531. he went with Pizarro from Panama who arriued and stayed three moneths at Tumbez and thence went to Tangarara and founded Saint Michaels where he heard of Atabalipa or Atahualpa and his warres with his brother Cusco who sent a Spie thither and as hee marched presents to Pizarro Hee with tortures learned of two Indians what and where Atabalipa was They marched on he sayth to Caxâ—malca a Citie foure miles in circuit entred with two Gates On one side of the Citie is a great Palace walled about with a great Court planted with trees This they call the House of the Sunne whom they worship putting off their Shooes when they enter And such there are in euery great Towne There were two thousand houses in streets straight as a Line the walls of strong stone three paces or fathoms high within are faire Fountaines of water and in the midst a greater street then any in Spaine walled about before which is a Fortresse of stone with staires from the Street to the Fort. On one side of this Street is the Palace of Atabalipa with Gardens and Lodgings the houses all painted with diuers colours in one roome were two great Fountaines adorned with plates of Gold in one of which runnes water so hote that a man cannot indure his hand therein the other being very cold The people are neate the women are honest weare a wrought Girdle on their long garments aboue that a Mantle which couereth them from the head to the midst of the thigh The men weare white Frockes without sleeues The women in a Palace made Chicha for the Armie After the Armies approached a Frier of the Order of Saint Dominike went and told him that the Christians were his friends The Cacique Atabalipa or Atabuallpa answered that first hee would haue them restore all that they had taken in his Land and after hee would doe as hee should see cause The Frier with a Booke in his hand beganne to speake to him the things of God hee demanded the booke and the Father gaue it him and he threw it downe about his people The Indian Interpreter ranne and tooke it vp and gaue it the Father who suddenly returned crying Come forth Christians come forth and set on these Enemies Dogs which will not accept the things of God whose Prince hath throwne on the ground the Booke of our holy Law Thereupon the Gouernour sounded the Trumpets and gaue a token to the Gunner to discharge the Ordnance and the Spaniards on foot and horsebacke rushed on with such furie that the Indians hearing the dreadfull thunders of the Artilerie and seeing the force of the Horses fled the Gouernour went directly to the Litter in which Atabalipa was whom hee tooke many Indians whose hands were cut off bearing the same Litter on their shoulders Sixe or seuen thousand were slaine besides many which had their Armes cut off and other wounded Atabalipa by an Indian sent to the other Indians that they should not flee for hee was still aliue in the Christians hands whom hee commended for a good Nation and commanded his to serue them Hee was about thirtie yeeres old a personable man somewhat grosse with thicke lips and eyes incarnate with bloud his speech graue The next day the Spaniards got fiftie thousand Pezos of Gold each worth one Ducket and two Carolines and seuen thousand Markes of Siluer and many Emeralds wherewith the Cacique seemed content and said that he would giue him as much Gold as would fill a roome to such a marke higher then a tall man could reach by a spanne the roome being twenty fiue foot long and fifteene broad The Gouernour asked how much Siluer hee would giue he said that hee would haue tenne thousand Indians which should make a partition in the midst of the Palace and fill it with vessels of Siluer of diuers sorts all which he would giue for his ransome The Gouernour promised him his libertie on this condition and to worke no treason against the Christians Fortie dayes were set and twentie passed in which came no Gold Then we learned that he had taken his brother Cusco his brother by the father a greater man then himselfe He had told some that Atabalipa promised the Gold which he had and hee would giue the Christians foure times as much as the other had promised which being told to Atabalipa he caused him suddenly to bee dispatched Hee killed another of his brothers which had said he would drinke in Atabalipas skull but contrariwise he drunke in his which I my selfe saw and all that went with Hernando Pizarro I saw the head with the skinne the flesh drie and the haires on and his teeth closed and betwixt them a Pipe of Siluer and on the top a Cup of Gold fastned to the head with a hole going into it His Slaues put Chicha into the Cup which ranne by the mouth into that pipe whence Atabalipa drunke
and Shooes Sawes Pick-axes Spades and Shouels Axes Hatchets Hookes Kniues Sizzers Hammers Nailes Chissels Fish-hookes Bels Beades Bugles Looking-glasses Thimbles Pinnes Needles Threed and such like They set saile from Kingrode the twentieth day of March. We set saile from Milford Hauen where the winds had stayed vs a fortnight in which space we heard of Queene Elizabeths death the tenth of Aprill 1603. In our course we passed by the Iles of the Açores had first sight of the Pike and afterward of the Iland of Cueruo and Flores and after we had runne some fiue hundred leagues we fell with a multitude of small Ilands on the North Coast of Virginia in the latitude of 43. degrees the 〈◊〉 of Iune which Ilands wee found very pleasant to behold adorned with goodly grasse and sundry sorts of Trees as Cedars Spruce Pines and Firre-trees Heere wee found an excellent fishing for Cods which are better then those of New-found-land and withall we saw good and Rockie ground fit to drie them vpon also we see no reason to the contrary but that Salt may bee made in these parts a matter of no small importance We sayled to the South-west end of these Ilands and there rode with our ships vnder one of the greatest One of them we named Foxe Iland because we found those kind of beasts thereon So passing through the rest with our Boates to the mayne Land which lieth for a good space North-east and South-west we found very safe riding among them in sixe seuen eight ten and twelue fathomes At length comming to the Mayne in the latitude of 43. degrees and an halfe we ranged the same to the South-west In which course we found foure Inlets the most Easterly whereof was barred at the mouth but hauing passed ouer the barre wee ranne vp into it fiue miles and for a certaine space found very good depth and comming out againe as we sailed South-westward wee lighted vpon two other Inlets which vpon our search we found to pierce not farre into the Land the fourth and most Westerly was the best which we rowed vp ten or twelue miles In all these places we found no people but signes of fires where they had beene Howbeit we beheld very goodly Groues and Woods replenished with tall Okes Beeches Pine-trees Firre-trees Hasels Wich-hasels and Maples We saw here also sundry sorts of Beasts as Stags Deere Beares Wolues Foxes Lusernes and Dogges with sharpe noses But meeting with no Sassafras we left these places with all the foresaid Ilands shaping our course for Sauage Rocke discouered the yeere before by Captaine Gosnold where going vpon the Mayne we found people with whom we had no long conuersation because here also we could find no Sassfras Departing hence we bare into that great Gulfe which Captaine Gosnold ouer-shot the yeere before coasting and finding people on the North side thereof Not yet satisfied in our expectation we left them and sailed ouer and came to an Anchor on the South side in the latitude of 41. degrees and odde minutes where we went on Land in a certaine Bay which we called Whitson Bay by the name of the Worshipfull Master Iohn Whitson then Maior of the Citie of Bristoll and one of the chiefe Aduenturers and finding a pleasant Hill thereunto adioyning wee called it Mount Aldworth for Master Robert Aldworths sake a chiefe furtherer of the Voyage aswell with his Purse as with his trauell Here we had sufficient quantitie of Sassafras At our going on shore vpon view of the people and sight of the place wee thought it conuenient to make a small baricado to keepe diligent watch and ward in for the aduertizement and succour of our men while they should worke in the Woods During our abode on shore the people of the Countrey came to our men sometimes ten twentie fortie or threescore and at one time one hundred and twentie at once We vsed them kindly and gaue them diuers sorts of our meanest Merchandize They did eat Pease and Beanes with our men Their owne victuals were most of fish We had a youth in our company that could play vpon a Gitterne in whose homely Musicke they tooke great delight and would giue him many things as Tobacco Tobacco-pipes Snakes skinnes of sixe foot long which they vse for Girdles Fawnes skinnes and such like and danced twentie in a Ring and the Gitterne in the middest of them vsing many Sauage gestures singing Io Ia Io Ia Ia Io him that first brake the ring the rest would knocke and cry out vpon Some few of them had plates of Brasse a foot long and halfe a foote broad before their breasts Their weapons are Bowes of fiue or sixe foot long of Wich-hasell painted blacke and yellow the strings of three twists of sinewes bigger then our Bow-strings Their Arrowes are of a yard and an handfull long not made of Reeds but of a fine light wood very smooth and round with three long and deepe blacke feathers of some Eagle Vulture or Kite as closely fastened with some binding matter as any Fletcher of ours can glue them on Their Quiuers are full a yard long made of long dried Rushes wrought about two handfuls broad aboue and one handfull beneath with prettie workes and compartiments Diamant wise of red and other colours We carried with vs from Bristoll two excellent Mastiues of whom the Indians were more afraid then of twentie of our men One of these Mastiues would carrie a halfe Pike in his mouth And one Master Thomas Bridges a Gentleman of our company accompanied only with one of these Dogs and passed sixe miles alone in the Countrey hauing lost his fellowes and returned safely And when we would be rid of the Sauages company wee would let loose the Mastiues and saddenly with out-cryes they would flee away These people in colour are inclined to a swart tawnie or Chestnut colour not by nature but accidentally and doe weare their haire brayded in foure parts and trussed vp about their heads with a small knot behind in which haire of theirs they sticke many feathers and toyes for brauerie and pleasure They couer their priuities only with a piece of leather drawne betwixt their twists and fastened to their Girdles behind and before whereunto they hang their bags of Tobacco They seeme to bee somewhat iealous of their women for we saw not past two of them who weare Aprons of Leather skins before them downe to the knees and a Beares skinne like an Irish Mantle ouer one shoulder The men are of stature somewhat taller then our ordinary people strong swift well proportioned and giuen to treacherie as in the end we perceiued Their Boats whereof we brought one to Bristoll were in proportion like a Wherrie of the Riuer of Thames seuenteene foot long and foure foot broad made of the Barke of a Birch-tree farre exceeding in bignesse those of England it was sowed together with strong and tough
hornes and are feathered very artificially Pasphia was as good as his word for hee sent Venison but the Sawse came within few dayes after At Port Cotage in our Voyage vp the Riuer we saw a Sauage Boy about the age of ten yeeres which had a head of haire of a perfect yellow and a reasonable white skinne which is a Miracle amongst all Sauages This Riuer which wee haue discouered is one of the famousest Riuers that euer was found by any Christian it ebbes and flowes a hundred and threescore miles where ships of great burthen may harbour in safetie Wheresoeuer we landed vpon this Riuer wee saw the goodliest Woods as Beech Oke Cedar Cypresse Wal-nuts Sassafras and Vines in great abundance which hang in great clusters on many Trees and other Trees vnknowne and all the grounds bespred with many sweet and delicate flowres of diuers colours and kindes There are also many fruites as Strawberries Mulberries Rasberries and Fruits vnknowne there are many branches of this Riuer which runne flowing through the Woods with great plentie of fish of all kindes as for Sturgeon all the World cannot be compared to it In this Countrey I haue seene many great and large Medowes hauing excellent good pasture for any Cattle There is also great store of Deere both Red and Fallow There are Beares Foxes Otters Beuers Muskats and wild beasts vnknowne The foure and twentieth day wee set vp a Crosse at the head of this Riuer naming it Kings Riuer where we proclaimed Iames King of England to haue the most right vnto it When wee had finished and set vp our Crosse we shipt our men and made for Iames Fort. By the way wee came to Pohatans Towre where the Captaine went on shore suffering none to goe with him hee presented the Commander of this place with a Hatchet which hee tooke ioyfully and was well pleased But yet the Sauages murmured at our planting in the Countrie whereupon this Werowance made answere againe very wisely of a Sauage Why should you bee offended with them as long as they hurt you not nor take any thing away by force they take but a little waste ground which doth you not any of vs any good I saw Bread made by their women which doe all their drugerie The men takes their pleasure in hunting and their warres which they are in continually one Kingdome against another The manner of baking of bread is thus after they pound their wheat into flowre with hote water they make it into paste and worke it into round balls and Cakes then they put it into a pot of seething water when it is sod throughly they lay it on a smooth stone there they harden it as well as in an Ouen There is notice to be taken to know married women from Maids the Maids you shall alwayes see the fore part of their head and sides shauen close the hinder part very long which they tie in a pleate hanging downe to their hips The married women weares their haire all of a length and is tied of that fashion that the Maids are The women kinde in this Countrey doth pounce and race their bodies legges thighes armes and faces with a sharpe Iron which makes a stampe in curious knots and drawes the proportion of Fowles Fish or Beasts then with paintings of sundry liuely colours they rub it into the stampe which will neuer be taken away because it is dried into the flesh where it is sered The Sauages beare their yeeres well for when wee were at Pamonkies wee saw a Sauage by their report was aboue eight score yeeres of age His eyes were sunke into his head hauing neuer a tooth in his mouth his haire all gray with a reasonable bigge beard which was as white as any snow It is a Miracle to see a Sauage haue any haire on their faces I neuer saw read nor heard any haue the like before This Sauage was as lustie and went as fast as any of vs which was strange to behold The fifteenth day of Iune we had built and finished our Fort which was triangle wise hauing three Bulwarkes at euery corner like a halfe Moone and foure or fiue pieces of Artillerie mounted in them we had made our selues sufficiently strong for these Sauages we had also sowne most of our Corne on two Mountaines it sprang a mans height from the ground this Countrey is a fruitfull soile bearing many goodly and fruitfull Trees as Mulberries Cherries Walnuts Ceders Cypresse Sassafras and Vines in great abundance Munday the two and twentieâ—h of Iune in the morning Captaine Newport in the Admirall departed from Iames Port for England Captaine Newport being gone for England leauing vs one hundred and foure persons verie bare and scantie of victualls furthermore in warres and in danger of the Sauages We hoped after a supply which Captaine Newport promised within twentie weekes But if the beginners of this action doe carefully further vs the Country being so fruitfull it would be as great a profit to the Realme of England as the Indies to the King of Spaine if this Riuer which wee haue found had beene discouered in the time of warre with Spaine it would haue beene a commoditie to our Realme and a great annoyance to our enemies The seuen and twentieth of Iuly the King of Rapahanna demanded a Canoa which was restored lifted vp his hand to the Sunne which they worship as their God besides he laid his hand on his heart that he would be our speciall friend It is a generall rule of these people when they swere by their God which is the Sunne no Christian will keepe their Oath better vpon this promise These people haue a great reuerence to the Sunne aboue all other things at the rising and setting of the same they sit downe lifting vp their hands and eyes to the Sunne making a round Circle on the ground with dried Tobacco then they began to pray making many Deuillish gestures with a Hellish noise foming at the mouth staring with their eyes wagging their heads and hands in such a fashion and deformitie as it was monstrous to behold The sixt of August there died Iohn Asbie of the bloudie Flixe The ninth day died George Flowre of the swelling The tenth day died William Bruster Gentleman of a wound giuen by the Sauages and was buried the eleuenth day The fourteenth day Ierome Alikock Ancient died of a wound the same day Francis Mid-winter Edward Moris Corporall died suddenly The fifteenth day their died Edward Browne and Stephen Galthrope The sixteenth day their died Thomas Gower Gentleman The seuenteenth day their died Thomas Mounslic The eighteenth day there died Robert Penniugton and Iohn Martine Gentleman The nineteenth day died Drue Piggase Gentleman The two and twentieth day of August there died Captaine Bartholomew Gosnold one of our Councell he was honourably buried hauing all the Ordnance in the Fort shot off with many vollies of small shot After
in but they hold all of their great Werowance Powhatan vnto whom they pay tribute of Skins Beads Copper Pearle Deare Turkies wild Beasts and Corne. What hee commandeth they dare not disobey in the least thing It is strange to see with what great feare adoration all these people do obey this Powhatan For at his feet they present whatsoeuer hee commandeth at the least frowne of his brow their greatest spirits will tremble with feare and no maruell for hee is very terrible and tyrannous in punishing such as offend him For example hee caused certaine malefactors to bee bound hand and foot then hauing many fires gathering great store of burning coles they rake these coles round in the forme of a cock-pit and in the midst they cast the offenders to broyle to death Somtimes hee causeth the heads of them that offend him to bee laid vpon the altar or sacrificing stone and one with clubs beat out their braines When he would punish any notorious enemy or malefactor hee causeth him to bee tied to a tree and with Muscle shels or Reeds the executioner cutteth off his ioynts one after another euer casting what they cut off into the fire then doth hee proceed with S 〈…〉 els and Reeds to case the skin from his head and face then doe they rip his belly and so burne him with the tree and all Thus themselues reported they executed George Cassen Their ordinary correction is to beat them with cudgels Wee haue seene a man kneeling on his knees and at Powhatans command two men haue beat him on the bare skin till hee hath fallen senselesse in a sound and yet neuer cry nor complained In the yeere 1608 he surprised the people of Payankatank his neere neighbours and subiects The occasion was to vs vnknowne but the manner was thus First he sent diuers of his men to lodge amongst them that night then the Ambusacodes inuironed all their houses and at the hour appointed they all fel to the spoile twenty foure men they slew the long haire of their one side of their heads with the skinne cased off with shels or reeds they brought away They surprised also the women the children and the Werowance All these they present to Powhatan The Werowance women and children became his prisoners and doe him seruice The lockes of haire with their skins he hanged on a line vnto two trees And thus hee made ostentation of as great a triumph at Werowocomoco shewing them to the English men that then came vnto him at his appoitment they expecting prouision he to betray them supposed to halfe conquer them by this spectacle of his terrible crueltie And this is as much as my memory can call to mind worthy of note which I haue purposely collected to satisfie my friends of the true worth and qualitie of Virginia Yet some bad natures will not stick to slander the Countrey that will slouenly spit at all things especially in company where they can find none to contradict them Who though they were scarce euer ten miles from Iames Towne or at the most but at the Falls yet holding it a great disgrace that amongst so much action their actions were nothing exclaime of all things though they neuer aduentured to know any thing nor euer did any thing but deuoure the fruits of other mens labours Being for most part of such tender educations and small experience in martiall accidents because they found not English Cities nor such faire houses nor at their owne wishes any of their accustomed dainties with Feather-beds and Down-pillowes Tauernes and Ale-houses in euery breathing place neither such plentie of Gold and Siluer and dissolute libertie as they expected had little or no care of any thing but to pamper their bellies to fly away with our Pinnaces or procure their meanes to returne for England For the Countrey was to them a misery a ruine a death a hell their reports here and their owne actions were there according Some other there were that had yeerely stipends to passe to and againe for transportation who to keepe the mystery of the businesse in themselues though they had neither time nor meanes to know much of themselues yet all mens actions or relations they so formally tuned to the temporizing times simplicitie as they could make their ignorances seeme much more then all the true actors could by their experience And those with their great wordes deluded the world with such strange promises as abused the businesse much worse then the rest For the businesse being builded vpon the foundation of their fained experience the planters the Money Tin and meanes haue still miscarried yet they euer returning and the Planters so farre absent who could contradict their excuses which still to maintaine their vain-glory and estimation from time to time they haue vsed such diligence as made them passe for truths though nothing more false And that the aduenturers might be thus abused let no man wonder for the wisest liuing is soonest abused by him that hath a faire tongue and a dissembling heart There were many in Virginia meerely proiecting verball and idle contemplators and those so deuoted to pure idlenesse that though they had liued two or three yeeres in Virginia lordly necessitie it selfe could not compel them to passe the Pninsula or Pallisadoes of Iames Town those wittie spirits what would they not affirme in the behalfe of our transporters to get victuall from their ships or obtaine their good words in England to their passes Thus the clamors and the ignorance of false informers are sprung those disasters that sprung in Virginia and our ingenious Verbalists were no lesse plague to vs in Virginia then the Locusts to the Egyptians For the labour of thirtie of the best only preserued in Christianitie by their industry the idle liuers of neere two hundred of the rest who liuing neere ten months of such naturall meanes as the Countrey naturally of it selfe afforded notwithstanding all this and the worst fury of the Sauages the extremitie of sicknesse mutinies faction ignorances and want of victuall in all that time I lost but seuen or eight men yet subiected the Sauages to our desired obedience and receiued contribution from fiue and thirtie of their Kings to protect and assist them against any that should assault them in which order they continued true and faithfull and as subiects to his Maiestie so long after as I did gouerne there vntill I left the Countrey since how they haue reuolted the Countrey lost and againe replanted and the businesses haue succeeded from time to time I refer you to the relations of them returned from Virginia that haue beene more diligent in such obseruations gathered out of the Writings of diuers of that Plantation by Doctor William Simons CHAP. IIII. The proceedings of the English Colony in Virginia taken faithfully out of the writings of THOMAS STVDLY Cape-Merchant ANAS TODKILL Doctor RVSSELL NATHANIEL POWELL WILLIAM PHETIPLACE and RICHARD POT
them will chase almost an hundred men for they account it death for whomsoeuer stand in their way These are highly esteemed of all sorts of people and are of the Sachims Councell without whom they will not warre or vndertake any weightie businesse In warre their Sachims for their more safetie goe in the midst of them They are commonly men of greatest stature and strength and such as will endure most hardnesse and yet are more discreet courteous and humane in their carriages then any amongst them scorning theft lying and the like base dealings and stand as much vpon their reputation as any men And to the end they may haue store of these they traine vp the most forward and likeliest boyes from their child-hood in great hardnesse and make them abstaine from daintie meat obseruing diuers orders prescribed to the end that when they are of age the Deuill may appeare to them causing to drinke the juyce of Sentry and other bitter Hearbs till they cast which they must disgorge into the platter and drinke againe and againe till at length through extraordinary pressing of nature it will seeme to bee all bloud and this the boyes will doe with eagernesse at the first and so continue till by reason of faintnesse they can scarce stand on their legs and then must goe forth into the cold also they beat their shins with sticks and cause them to run through bushes stumps and brambles to make them hardy and acceptable to the Deuill that in time he may appeare vnto them Their Sachims cannot bee all called Kings but onely some few of them to whom the rest resort for protection and pay homage vnto them neither may they warre without their knowledge and approbation yet to be commanded by the greater as occasion serueth Of this sort is Massassowat our friend and Conanacus of Nanohiggenset our supposed enemy Euery Sachim taketh care for the widdow and fatherlesse also for such as are aged and any way maymed if their friends be dead or not able to prouide for them A Sachim will not take any to wife but such an one as is equall to him in birth otherwise they say their seede would in time become ignoble and though they haue many other wiues yet are they no other then concubines or seruants and yeeld a kind of obedience to the principall who ordereth the family and them in it The like their men obserue also and will adhere to the first during their liues but put away the other at their pleasure This Gouernment is successiue and not by choyce If the father dye before the sonne or daughter bee of age then the childe is committed to the protection and tuition of some one amongst them who ruleth in his stead till hee be of age but when that is I know not Euery Sachim knoweth how farre the bounds and limits of his owne Countrey extendeth and that is his owne proper inheritance out or that if any of his men desire land to set their Corne hee giueth them as much as they can vse and sets them in their bounds In this circuit whosoeuer hunteth if any kill any venison bring him his fee which is foure parts of the same if it bee killed on the Land but if in the water then the skin thereof The Great Sachims or Kings know not their owne bounds or limits of land as well as the rest All Trauellers or Strangers for the most part lodge at the Sachims when they come they tell them how long they will stay and to what place they goe during which time they receiue entertainment according to their persons but want not Once a yeere the Pnieses vse to prouoke the people to bestow much Corne on the Sachim To that end they appoint a certaine time and place neere the Sachims dwelling where the people bring many baskets of Corne and make a great stack thereof There the Pnieses stand ready to giue thankes to the people on the Sachims behalfe and after acquainteth the Sachim therewith who fetcheth the same and is no lesse thankfull bestowing many gifts on them When any are visited with sicknesse their friends resort vnto them for their comfort and continue with them oftentimes till their death or recouery If they die they stay a certaine time to mourne for them Night and morning they performe this dutie many daies after the buriall in a most dolefull manner insomuch as though it bee ordinary and the Note Musicall which they take one from another and altogether yet it will draw teares from their eyes and almost from ours also But if they recouer then because their sicknesse was chargeable they send Corne and other gifts vnto them at a certaine appointed time whereat they feast and dance which they call Commoco When they bury the dead they sowe vp the corps in a mat and so put it in the earth If the partie be a Sachim they couer him with many curious mats and bury all his riches with him and inclose the graue with a pale If it bee a childe the father will also put his owne most speciall Iewels and Ornaments in the earth with it also he will cut his haire and disfigure himselfe very much in token of sorrow If it bee the man or woman of the house they will pull downe the mats and leaue the frame standing and bury them in or neere the same and either remoue their dwelling or giue ouer house-keeping The men imploy themselues wholly in hunting and other exercises of the Bow except at some times they take some paine in fishing The women liue a most slauish life they carry all their burdens set and dresse their Corne gather it in and seeke out for much of their food beate and make readie the Corne to eate and haue all houshold care lying vpon them The younger sort reuerence the elder and doe all meane offices whilst they are together although they be strangers Boyes and girles may not weare their haire like men and women but are distinguished thereby A man is not accounted a man till he doe some notable act or shew forth such courage and resolution as becommeth his place The men take much Tobacco but for boyes so to doe they account it odious All their names are significant and variable for when they come to the state of men and women they alter them according to their deeds or dispositions When a maide is taken in marriage shee first cutteth her haire and after weareth a couering on her head till her haire be growne out Their women are diuersly disposed some as modest as they will scarce talke one with another in the company of men being very chaste also yet other some light lasciuious and wanton If a woman haue a bad husband or cannot affect him and there bee warre or opposition betweene that and any other people shee will runne away from him to the contrary partie and there liue where they neuer come
through the liberalitie partly of the Sunnes neighbourhood which prouideth them in that necrenesse to the Sea of exceeding showres partly of many fine Riuers which to requite the shadow and coolenesse they receiue from the Trees giue them backe againe a continuall refreshing of very sweete and tastie water For the Inhabitants of this Countrie A Captaine or two watering neere the place where his Lordship first anchored found a leasure to rowe vp a Riuer with some guard or Pikes and Musketers till they came to a Towne of these poore Saluages and a poore Towne it was of some twenty cottages rather then Houses and yet there was there a King whom they found in a wide hanging garment of rich crimson Taffetie a Spanish Rapier in his hand and the modell of a Lyon in shining Brasse hanging vpon his breast There they saw their women as naked as wee had seene their men and alike attired euen to the boring of their lippes and eares yet in that nakednesse they perceiued some sparkes of modestie not willingly comming in the sight of strange and apparelled men and when they did come busie to couer what should haue bin better couered The Queene they saw not nor any of the Noble wiues but of the vulgar many and the Maidens it should seeme they would not haue so squemish for the King commanded his Daughters presence with whom our Gentlemen did dance after meate was taken away This withdrawing of their wiues seemeth to come of the common ielousie of these people for it is reported that though they admit one man to haue many wiues yet for any man to meddle with another mans wife is punished with death euen among them And no meruaile if the seueritie of law be set instead of many other wanting hinderances It seemeth that themselues are wearie of their nakednesse for besides the Kings apparrell they are exceeding desirous to exchange any of their Commodities for an old Waste-coate or but a Cap yea or but a paire of Gloues It is pretie that they say is the difference twixt the habit of a Wife and a Maide The Maide weareth no garter and indeede she needeth none but the Wife is the first night she is married which is not done without asking at the least the consent of her parents so straightly gartered that in time the flesh will hang ouer the list The haire of men and women are of like length and fashion But of all other things it is most memorable that whereas their Houses are priuate to all other vses yet they haue one common place where all their men at least take their diet nature teaching them that Law which in Licurgus his mouth was thought strange and perhaps needelesse The King sitteth in the same great roome with the rest but withdrawing himselfe into some more louely part accompanied onely with three or foure of the best esteeme their meates are their fine fruites yet haue they Hennes and Pigges but it should seeme rather for delight then victuall their drinke is commonly water but they make drinke of their Caâ—â—ain better of their Pines and it should seeme that might be made an excellent liquor but the best and reserued for the Kings cup onely of Potatoes their Bread is Cassain The last report of them shall bee what I haue seene in experience namely their great desire to vnderstand the English tongue for some of them will point to most parts of his body and hauing told the name of it in the language of Dominica he would not rest till he were told the name of it in English which hauing once told he would repeate till he could either name it right or at least till he thought it was right and so commonly it should be sauing that to all words ending in a consonant they alwayes set the second vowell as for chinne they say chin-ne so making most of the monasillables dissillables But it is time to leaue them who are already many leagues of On thursday night his Lordship set saile for the Uirgines and on saturday morning had them in sight and in the afternoone we were come to an ankor On Whitsunday in the morning betimes for there was a fit place sought out the euening before our land forces went on shore and there his Lordshippe tooke a perfect muster of them The Companies indeede were though after much sicknesse goodly in number one might well say not so fewe as a thousand When the Companies had bin trained into all sorts and faces of fights at length his Lordshippe commanded the Drummes to beate a call and the troopes being drawne in the nearest closenesse that conueniently they might be that he might be heard of all his Lordship standing vnder a great cliffe of a rocke his prospect to the Seaward stept vpon one of the greater stones which added to his naturall stature gaue him a pretty height aboue the other company so commanding audience made a speech to them After which the Fleete then within one dayes sailing from Puertoricco his Lordship presently appointed Officers for the field They all made vp a dozen Companies whereof if any wanted the full number of 80. they were plentifully supplied by a large ouerplus of gallant Gentlemen that followed his Lordships colours borne by Captaine Bromley and Sir Iohn also had more then 80. so that the whole Armie appointed to Land was neere vpon a thousand specially seeing the Officers of seuerall Companies were not reckoned in these numbers The Offices thus bestowed his Lordship forth with commanded euery man to be shipped in Boates and to goe aboord where after dinner it was debated whether it were better to passe through the Uirgines a way not clearely vnknowne for diuers of our company both Souldiors and Marriners had gone it before with Sir Francis Drake in his last voyage or else to hold the old course through the Passages It was acknowledged that the Virgines was the neerer way but withall none can denie but that it was the more dangerous for the way is very narrow about the breadth of Thames about London and we durst not promise our selues the continuance of a leading winde The way through the passages was found to be farther about but withall it was without danger and therefore hauing no great haste choose the safer way by the passages for said his Lordship I choose rather to be the first that shall take Puertorico then the second that shall passe the Uirgines The Uirgines are little Ilands not inhabited some thinke for want of water some thinke that is no cause and that there is store of water They are very barren and craggie somewhat like the Burlings but being much more sandie as it is much more hot Among these many scattered Ilands there is one called the Bird-Iland by reason of the incredible store of Fowle So stored is it with plentie of Fowle that neuer was English Doue-coat more willing
companions were killed and eaten onely my selfe remayned among these Canibals a yeere and eleuen moneths in the which time I went many times to warre against other Prouinces that were ioyning vpon the Countrie of Tamoyes and I thanke God prospered so well that I was very much esteemed of them and had a great commâ—nd ouer them when they went to the field These Tamoyes be as proper men as any bee in all Europe they vse to make holes in their vpper-lips like the Petewares most of them are of a very faire complexion The men haue their heads alwayes set with feathers of diuers colours which sheweth very pretily they goe starke naked The women are as proper as any Nation can be tall comly well legd cleane made of body very small in the waste very faire of complexion fine handed and very comly faces They vse a kinde of caruing ouer their breasts which becommeth them very well Here the Canibals esteeme not any more of gold or precious stones then wee doe of any stones in the streets if the Spaniards had knowne of this Countrie they needed not to haue gone to Peru there is not like vnto this for all kinde of rich metals and many kinde of precious stones In this place I liued eighteene moneths and went naked as the Canibals did After I had liued with these Canibals the time that you haue heard I was in great fauour and credit with them insomuch that they would not doe any thing before they had made me acquainted withall I haue told them many times of the comming and going of our English ships to the Straits of Magellan and how well we did vse all kinde of Nations and what kinde of all things necessarie wee had for their vse These wordes made the Canibals desire to come to the Sea coast and asked of mee how it were possible for them to come to dwell by the Sea without being slaues to the Portugals I told them that I knew many places where English men and French men did vse to come but that neither Portugall nor Spaniard was neuer there After I had told them what I thought best we all agreed to come through the Prouince of Tocoman and so to the Sea betweene the Riuer of Plate and Saint Vincents This Countrie of Tocoman is all sandie and in it inhabite the Pigmeys I haue seene many of them amongst the Spaniards at the Riuer of Plate They are not altogether so little as wee speake of them here in England their inhabitation in Tocoman is in Caues of the ground In this Countrie the Inhabitants in many places haue such Wheat as we finde in England and Cassaui meale This Tocoman is iudged by the Spaniard to be the end of Brasill and the entring into Peru for in Tocoma there are all kinde of Brasila Rootes and all kinde of Corne aswell as Peru this Countrie yeeldeth nothing to the Spaniards but wilde Horses and the Indians of Tocoman are mortall enemies to all the Inhabitants of Peru therefore the Spaniards doe keepe this Countrie because they keepe the Prouinces of Peru in feare or else they would rise vp against the Spaniards After we had passed this Countrie we came to a Riuer that runneth from Tocoman to Chile where we tarried foure daies making Canoas to passe the Râ—uer for there were so manie Crocodiles that we durst not passe it for feare of them after we had passed this Riuer we came to the Mountaine Detodas Metalas that is of all Mettals At this plâ—ce diuers Spaniards and Portugals haue beene and certain lawlesse men were set on shoare on this coast by one Pedro dâ— Charamento which came to this place and set vp a great Crosse and on it writ that the Countrie was the King of Spaines the which I put out and wâ—â—t that it was the Queene of Englands This hill is of diuers kinde of Mettals Copper and Iron some Gold and great store of Quicke-siluer It is verie high and all bare wit out any Trees Here likewise was a little Church made where we found two Images one of our Lady and another of Christ crucified When the Tamoyes saw those signes they thought that I had betraied them and indeede I was amazed thinking that we had beene in some part of the Riuer of Plate and because the Indians should not be discouraged I shewed my selfe to be very glad and told them that I knew those were signes thaâ— my Countrie men vsed to make when they came into strange Countries with these perswasions I made the Tamoyes to come on their iourney to the Sea where otherwise if I had told them it had bâ—n set vp by the Spaniards the feare that the poore Canibals stood in of them had bin enough to haue made them all returne againe from whence they came At the last we came to the Sea as I haue told you to the Towne of the Cariyohs this Towne standeth in a fine pleasant place hard by the coast in a faire Bay where one hundred Ships may anker without any danger And in this place you shall alwaies haue great store of fish In this Countrie for a Knife or a â—â—sh hooke you may buy a dozen of skinnes of very good Furre and if you will these Indians will goe for any trâ—fle and fetch two or three baskets of Mettals and some haue had such good lucke that for two or three Glasses and a Combe or two with some Kniues they haue got the value of foure or fiue thousand Crownes in Gold and Stones The Towne stood vpon a hill but we puld it down But when we were taken by the Portugals and that the Cariyohs were restored againe to their Countrie they did scituate againe with in the same place where they were when we draue them out of their Countrie Here the Portugals did binde mee and would haue hanged mee for the twelue Portugals that the Canibals had killed and eaten The Caryiâ—hs are men of good stature and very valiant they make holes in their vnder lippe as the other Canibals doe These Canibals likewise eate mans flesh and speake the same language that the Tamoyes doe the women are very comely the most of them are oâ— a faire complexion they weare their haire loose about their eares and all their bodies are died with blacke and their faces withered and yellow their brests are all carued with diuers colours which be seemeth verie well Here is the end of my trauell through America with the Canibals from whence I returned againe to my Master Saluador Corea de Sasa where I was worse then euer I was before The Giants of Port Desire and inhabitants of Port Famine also Angola Congo and Massangana and Angica Countries of Africa AT Port Desire which is the next hauen to the straits of Magelan inhabited Giants of fifteene or sixteene spans of height I affirme that at Port Desire I saw the footing of them by the shoare side that was aboue
a shell of a fish that they finde by the shâ—are side and from Brasil the Portugals doe carrie great store of them to Angola These Moores doe esteeme verie much of red blew and yellow cloathes they will giue a slaue for a span of cloath in breadth I meane and the length of it of the breadth of the peece those peeces of cloth they weare about their middles and vnder it they hang the skin of a great Weasell before them and another behinde them and this is all the garments that they weare A Weazell in their language is called Pâ—ccâ— You can doe a Blackamoore no greater disgrace then to take away his Skinne from before him for he will dye with griefe if he cannot be reuengéd the Portugals doe marke them as we doe Sheepe with a hot Iron which the Moores call Crimbo the poore slaues stand all in a row one by another and sing Mundele que sumbela â—e Carey â—a belelelle and thus the poore rogues are beguiled for the Portugals make them beleeue that they that haue not the marke is not accounted a man of any account in Brasil or in Portugall and thus they bring the poore Moores to be in a most damâ—able bondage vnder the colour of loue The Countrey of Angola yeeldeth no stone and very little wood the Moores doe make their houses all couered with earth these houses are no bigger then a reasonable Chamber and within are many partitions like the Cabbins of a ship in such sort that a man cannot stand vpright in them There beds are made of great Bulrushes sowed together with the rindes of a Tree They doe make cloth like Sparke of Veluet but it is thinner of the barke of a Tree and that cloth they doe call Mollelleo The Elephants doe feed in the Euening and in the Morning in low marishes as there bee many The Moores doe watch which way they come and assoone as the Elephants are at meat they digge great holes in the ground and couer them with sticks and then they couer the pits with earth and when they haue made all readie they goe to the Elephants and shoote at them with their Arrowes and assoone as the Elephants feele themselues hurt they râ—nne at what soeuer they see before them following after the Blackamores that chase them then they fall into the deepe pits where after they are once in they cannot get out The Moores of Angola are as blacke as â—et they are men of good stature they neuer take but one Wife whom they call Mocasha These Moores doe cut long streakes in their faces that reach from the top of their eares to their chinnes The women doe weare shels of fishes on their armes and on the small of their legges The Law amongst them is that if any More doe lie with an others wife hee shall lose his eares for his offence These Moores doe circumcize their children and giue them their names as wee doe when we baptize Angola may very easily be taken for the Portugals haue no Forts to defend it of any strength The King of Congo is the greatest King in all Aethiopia and doth keepe in the field continually sixtie thousand Souldiers that doe warre against the King of Vangala and the King of Angola this King is a Christian and is brother in Law of Armes with the King of Spaine his seruants of his house are most of them all Portugals and hee doth fauour them very much The King is of a verie liberall condition and verie fauourable to all Trauellers and doth delight verie much to heare of forreigne Countries He was in a manner amazed to heare how it was possible her Maiestie had liued a Maiden Queene so long and alwaies reigned in peace with her subiect When I was brought before the King and told him of my Countrie what plentie of things we had if the Portugals had not liked of it they would interrupt my speech and the King would shew himselfe verie angrie and tell them that euerie man was best able to speake of his Countrie and that I had no reason but to tell him that which was true The King of Congo when hee goeth to the Campe to see his Armie rideth vpon an Elephant in great pompe and maiestie on either side of the Elephant he hath six slaues two of them were Kings that he himselfe had taken in the field all the rest were of noble birth some of them were brothers to the King of Ancica and some of them were of the chiefest bloud of the great King of Bengala These noble slaues at euerie command of the King of Congo doe fall flat on the ground on their brests When the King doth ride as you haue heard they carrie a Canopâ—e as it were a cloth of State ouer his head His two Secretaries the one a Nobleman of Spaine the other a More doe ride next after him Before him goeth at the least fiue hundred Archers which are his Guard then there followeth a More which doth nothing but talke aloud in praise of the King telling what a great Warriour he hath beene and praising his wisdome for all things that hee hath accomplished verie honourably to his great fame of such as knew him When this King of Congo commeth to his Host all the Souldiers as he passeth fall flat on their faces to the ground He neuer commeth into his Host after any battell but hee dubbeth at the least twentie Knights Portugals and as many Moores giuing them verie great liuing according to their callings and the seruice that they haue done The brother of this King was in Spaine at my comming from thence for Ambassadour from his brother Here the Portugall Captaine would haue taken mee perforce to haue beene a common Souldier but the King commanded that they should let mee goe whether I would and my determination at that time was to haue gone for the Countrie of Prester Iohn for I had a great desire to see the Riuer of Nilo and Ierusalem for I accounted my selfe as a lost man not caring into what Countrie or Kingdome I came but it was not the will of God that I should at that time obtaine my desire For trauellinâ— through the Kingdome of Congo to haue gone to the Kingdome of Angila It was my fortune to meete a companie of Portugall Souldiers that went to a Conquest that the King of Spain had newly taken called Masangana which place is on the borders of Anguca Here they made me serue like a Drudge for both day and night I carried some stone and â—ime to make a Fort. It lieth right vnder the Line and standeth in a bottome in the middle of foure hils and about are many fogges but not one Riuer It is the vnfirmest Countrie vnder the Sunne Here the Portugals die like Chickens you shall see men in the morning verie â—ustie and within two houres dead Others that if they but weat their legges presently they swell
bigger then their middle others brake in the sides with a draught of water O if you did know the intollerable heate of the Countrie you would thinke your selfe better a thousand times dead then to liue there a weeke There you shall see poore Souldiers lie in troupes gaping like Camelians for a puffe of winde Here liued I three moneths not as the Portugals did taking of Physicke and euerie weeke letting of bloud and keeping close in their houses when they had any raine obseruing houres and times to goe abroad morning and Euening and neuer to to eate but at such and such times I was glad when I had got any thing at morning noone or night I thanke God I did worke all day from morning till night had it beene raine or neuer so great heate I had alwaies my health as well as I haue in England This Countrie is verie rich the King had great store of Gold sent him from this place the time that I was there the King of Angica had a great Citie at Masangana which Citie Paulas Dias gouernour of Angola tooke and scituated there and finding hard by it great store of Gold fortified it with foure Forts and walled a great circuit of ground round about it and within that wall now the Portugals doe build a Citie and from this Citie euerie day they doe warre against the King of Angica and haue burnt a great part of his Kingdome The Angicaâ— are men of goodly stature they file their teeth before on their vpper Iawe and on their vnder Iawe making a distance betweene them like the teeth of a Dogge they doe eate mans flesh they are the stubbornest Nation that liues vnder the Sunne and the resolutest in the field that euer man saw for they will rather kill themselues then yeelde to the Portugals they inhabit right vnder the line and of all kinde of Moores these are the blackest they doe liue in the Law of the Turkes and honour Mahomet they keepe manie Concubines as the Turkes doe they wash themselues euerie morning vpwards falling flat on their faces towards the East They weare their haire all made in plaits on their heads as well men as women they haue good store of Wheate and a kinde of graine like Fetches of the which they make Bread they haue great store of Hennes like Partridges and Turkies and all their feathers curle on their backes their houses are like the other houses of the Kingdomes aforenamed And thus I end shewing you as briefe as I can all the Nations and Kingdomes that with great danger of my life I trauelled through in twelue yeares of my best age getting no more then my trauell for my paine From this Kingdome Angica was I brought in Irons againe to my Master Saluador Corea de sa sa to the Citie of Saint Sebastian in Brasil as you haue heard Now you haue seene the discourse of my trauels and the fashions of all the Countries and Nations where I haue beene I will by the helpe of God make you a short discourse in the language of the Petiwares which language all the Inhabitants of Brasil doe vnderstand especially all the coast from Fernambucquo to the Riuer of Plate the which I hope will be profitable to all trauellers and of them I trust my paines shall be well accepted of First you must tell them of what Nation you are and that you come not as the Portugals doe for their wiues and children to make them bondslaues We are Englishmen as you all know that in times past had peace with you Now knowing the neede and want that you haue of all such things as before your Fathers had for the loue that both your ancestours and ours did beare one to another and for the loue and pittie that we haue of your want we are come to renew our ancieÌ„t amity Ore aqureiuua que se neering peramoya werisco Catadoro wareuy orenysbe beresoy Coeu pecoteue Cowauere pipope pewseua baresey opacatu baye berua oweryco coen pecoteue sou se-Core mandoare peramoya waysouba ore ranoya waysonua reseij eteguena rescij pecoteue pararaua oro in ibewith ore ramoya pereri socatumoyn go pacum §. V. The description of diuers Riuers Ports Harbours Ilands of Brasil for instruction of Nauigators RIo Grande is called by vs the great Riuer lately was conquered by a Portugall called Manuell Masquarenhas It is aboue two leagues broad in the mouth and on the South-east side standeth a great Fort made by the foresaid Manuell Masquarenhas that Countrie is plaine and sandy in many places especially neere the Sea and yeeldeth Sugar Canes in abundance On the coast are many great Bayes where the Indians doe oftentimes finde great store of Ambergreese within this place there is also store of Wood Pepper Ginger and Waxe Here inhabit a kinde of Canibals called Petywares these Canibals haue had trafficke a long time with France and amongst them there are many that can speake French which are Bastards begotten of Frenchmen On the coast of Brasil there are three Riuers of Paraeyua one is this that lieth next to Rio Gande the other is a great Riuer that runneth through the Countrie almost as farre as Lymo and commeth out betweene Cape Frio and Spirito Sancto the third is a faire Riuer that lieth betweene the Riuer of Plate and Saint Vincents This Pareyua whereof we speake is a faire great Bay where shipping being neuer so great may enter within this Bay vpon a hill you shall see a faire Citie and on the Sea side standeth two small Forts You may anker neere the shoare at the entrie of this Bay you shall see three hils of red earth on either side of the harbour which the Portugals call Barer as Mermethâ—es Guyana is a small Riuer that lieth by Paracua it belongeth to Iasper Desiquerd who was chiefe Iustice of all Brasil In the mouth of this Riuer standeth a great rocke which is continually couered with Sea Foules This Riuer hath two fadome water in the mouth a quarter of a mile within this Riuer on the South-west side you may take fresh water and great store of Cattell vpon this Riuer there are great store of Sugar Mils and continually you shall haue in this Riuer small Caruels that fish and carry Sugar from thence to Fernambuquo likewise here is great store of Brasil Pepper Ginger and Cotten Cocos Indian Nuts here likewise inhabit Petywares Etamariqua in the Indian language is a bed it is a point of the land like a Cape the point runneth halfe a mile into the Sea and vpon it the Portugals haue built a Towne you may anker very neere the shoare both on the South-west and on the North-east side of the Towne in seuen and eight fadome water All the Countrie till you come to Cape Augustin is low land and to saile from thence to Fernambuquo is no danger but the clifts which lye along the coast as
leaue and departed for that time I sent one of my companie with them to giue notice to Carasana and the rest of the Indians of Caripo that I had brought home their Country-man Martin whom they all thought to bee dead and another of their Nation also who had kindred and friends amongst them to desire him to come aboard my ship and to bring with him the principall Indians of Caripo that I might declare vnto them the cause of my comming into their Countrie and conferre with them of other matters intended for their good The next day I came into the Riuer of Wiapoco and anchored ouer against the Sandy Bay The day following the Indians came aboard as I had desired and brought vs good siore of their Countrie prouision Carasana and one or two more of them were attyred in old clothes which they had gotten of certaine English men who by the direction of Sir Walter Raleigh had traded there the yeere before the rest were all naked both men and women and this I obserued amongst them that although the better sort of men especially the Yaios doe couer their priuities by wearing ouer them a little peece of cotton cloth pretily wouen after their manner yet did I neuer see any of their women couered in any part either aboue or beneath the waste albeit they daily conuersed amongst vs but were all as the plaine prouerb is euen starke belly naked At their comming aboard my ship first Carasana as the principall amongst them and after him the rest saluted and welcommed vs after their rude manner I vsed them with all curtesie and entertayned them as well as the straight roome would giue me leaue giuing them good store of Aquauitae which they loue exceedingly I presented to their view their two Countrimen Martin the Lord of their Towne and Anthonie Canabre who was a Christian and had liued in England fourteene yeers both which I had brought home vnto them when they beheld them and after salutations and some conference knew to bee the same persons whom they supposed had beene long since dead they expressed much ioy and contentment and vnderstanding from their owne mouthes how well I had vsed them they seemed to be better pleased with our comming and when their rude salutations to their new-come Countrimen were ended I tooke them apart and thus declared the cause of my comming First I brought to their remembrance the exploits performed by Sir Walter Raleigh in their Countrie in the reigne of our late Soueraigne Queene Elizabeth when to free them from seruitude he most worthily vanquished the Spaniards at Trinidado burned their Towne tooke their Gouernour Don Anthonio de Berreo prisoner deliuered fiue of the Indian Kings imprisoned and bound by the necke with collers of Iron and with great labour and perill discouered the Riuer of Orenoque and the Countries adioyning as farre as the Prouince of Aromaya the Countrie of Topiawary and the Riuer of Caroli beyond it And that their Countrimen called the Orenoqueponi who are the borderers of Orenoque did then most willingly submit and render themselues vnder the subiection of the late Queene all which they well remembred and said that Sir VValter Raleigh promised to haue returned againe vnto them long since Then I excused his not returning according to his promise by reason of other imployments of great importance imposed vpon him by the late Queene shewing them moreouer that when he could not for that cause returne himselfe hee sent Captaine Keymis to visit them and to bring him true intelligence of their estate supposing that hee had left no Spaniards behinde him at Trinidado of power to molest them to the end that reliefe and aide might bee prepared for them according to their necessities and oppression of their enemies Then I told them of the death of the late Queene whereby that businesse of theirs was againe hindered Moreouer I declared vnto them that our gracious Soueraigne Lord King Iames who now reigneth ouer vs being the onely right and lawfull Heire and Successor to the Crowne and Dignitie of the Realme of England after the death of the late Queene was throughout the whole Land proclaymed King of England and so comming to reigne ouer vs hath beene euer since busied in ordering the State and affaires of the Kingdome which being by his great wisedome setled in tranquillitie and peace like a good gracious and worthy King doth now permit his Subiects to trauell abroad into forraine Countries and Nations to aide and assist all such as are vniustly molested by their enemies Whereupon I and the rest of these worthy Gentlemen my associates and friends hauing intelligence by some that had beene followers of Captaine Charles Lee who was a man well knowne amongst them and heretofore had taken possession of their Countrie to his Majesties vse and was planted diuers yeeres in Wiapoco where hee lyeth buried of the great variance and discord depending betweene them the allied Nations the Yaios Arwaccas Sappaios and Paragontos and their enemies the Charibes all inhabiting betweene the Riuers of Amazones and Dessequebe haue made a long and dangerous voyage into those parts to appease their dissentions and defend them against the Charibes or other enemies that shall molest or oppresse them and now being there arriued doe intend to make search in those Countries for conuenient places where such of our Nation as shall hereafter come to defend them may be fitly seated to dwell amongst them that if any of those Nations shall attempt at any time to disturbe the quiet liuing of their Neighbours they may haue store of English friends at hand and amongst them that will not spare their paines to appease their discords nor their liues to defend them from harme When I had thus declared vnto them the cause of my comming they made this answere that with our comming they were well pleased but our number of men they thought too great that they wanted meanes to prouide vs bread sufficient for them all hauing but a small Towne few Gardens and slender prouision for their owne companies because since Captaine Lee his death and his mens departure from them they neuer made prouision for any strangers I replyed that albeit their Towne was small and their Gardens few for the grounds wherein they plant their Cassaui whereof they make their bread they call their Gardens yet their Countrie was full of Inhabitants and had store of Gardens to supply our wants of bread and was plentifully stored with other prouisions sufficient for a greater number which I desired might be weekely brought vnto vs as neede required for that I meant not to take it without recompence but would giue them for it such commodities as should well please them which they wanted as Axes Hatchets Kniues Beades Looking-glasses Iewes trumps and such like things wherein they most delight Then they desired to consult amongst themselues which I permitted and expected their answere
of London THe Riuer of the Amazons lieth in the highest part of the West Indies beyond the Equinoctial Line to fall with this Riuer fortie leagues from Land you shal haue 8. 6. 7. fathomes water you shal see the Sea change to a ruddie colour the water shall grow fresh by these signes you may run boldly in your course and comming neere the Riuers mouth the depth of your water shal increase then you shal make Discouerie of the Trees before the Land by reason the Land is very low and not higher in one place then another three foote being at a Spring tide almost all ouerflowne God knowes how many hundred leagues It flowes much water there with a verie forcible tide In this Riuer I continued tenne weekes seeing the fashion of the people and Countrie there This Countrie is altogether full of Woods with all sorts of wilde Beasts as Lions Beares Woolues Leopards Baboones strange Boores Apes Monkeies Martins Sanguines Marmosets with diuers other strange beasts also these Woods are full of Wild-fowle of all sorts and Parrats more plentifull then Pidgeons in England and as good meate for I haue often eaten of them Also this Countrey is very full of Riuers hauing a King ouer euerie Riuer In this place is continuall Tempests as Lightning Thunder and Raine and so extreame that it continues most commonly sixteene or eighteene houres in foure and twentie There are many standing waters in this Countrie which bee full of Aligators Guianes with many other seuerall water Serpents and great store of fresh fish of strange fashions This Countrie is full of Muskitas which is a small Flie which much offends a Stranger comming newly into the Countrie The manner fashion and nature of the people is this They are altogether naked both men and women hauing not so much as one threed about them to couer any part of their nakednesse the man taketh a round Cane as bigge as a pennie Candle and two inches in length through the which hee puls the fore-skinne of his yard tying the skinne with a piece of the rinde of a Tree about the bignesse of a small pack-threed then making of it fast about his middle hee continueth thus till hee haue occasion to vse him In each Eare hee weareth a Reede or Cane which hee bores through it about the bignesse of a Swannes Quill and in length halfe an inch and the like through the midst of the lower lippe also at the bridge of the Nose hee hangs in a Reede a small glâ—sse Beade or Button which hanging directly afore his Mouth flies too and fro still as hee speakes wherein hee takes great pride and pleasure Hee weares his Haire long being rounded below to the neather part of his Eare and cut short or rather as I iudged pluckt bald on the câ—owne like a â—rier But their women vse no fashion at all to set forth themselues but starke naked as they were borne with haire long of their Heads also their Breasts hang verie low by reason they are neuer laced or braced vp they doe vse to anoint their Bodies both Men and Women with a kind of redde Earth because the Muskitas or Flies shall not offend them These people are verie ingenious craftie and treacherous verie light of foot and good Bowemen whose like I haue neuer seene for they doe ordinarily kill their owne food as Beasts Fowle and Fish the manner of their Bow and Arrowes is this The Bow is about two yards in length the Arrow seuen foote His Bow is made of Brasill-wood verie curious his string of the rinde of a Tree lying close to the Boâ— without any bent his Arrow made of Reede and the head of it is a fish bone 〈◊〉 a Beast in this manner standing behinde a Tree hee takes his marke at the Beast and wo 〈…〉 〈◊〉 he followes him like a Bloud-hound till he fall oftentimes seconding his shoot then for any Fowle be he neuer so little he neuer misses him as for the first hee walkes by the water side and when hee hath spied a fish in the water hee presently strikes him with his Arrow and suddenly throwing downe his Bow hee leapes into the water swimming to his Arrow which hee drawes aland with the fish fastened to it then hauing each kild his owne food as well flesh and fowle as fish they meete together to the number of fiftie or sixtie in a company then make a fire after this fashion They take two stickes of Wood rubbing one hard against another till such time as they bee fired then making of a great fire euery man is his owne Cooke to broile that which he hath gotten and thus they feed without Bread or Salt or any kind of drinke but Water and Tobacco neither doe they know what it meanes In these Countries we could find neither Gold nor Siluer Oare but great store of Hennes For I haue bought a couple for a Iewes Harpe when they would refuse tenne shillings in money This Countrie is full of delicious fruite as Pines Plantines Guaues and Potato Rootes of which Fruits and Roots I would haue bought a mans burthen for a glasse Button or Bead. The manner of their Lodging is this they haue a kinde of Net made of the rinde of a Tree which they call Haemac being three fathome in length and two in breadth and gathered at both ends at length then fastning either end to a Tree to the full length about a yard and halfe from the ground when hee hath desire to sleepe hee creepes vnto it The King of euerie Riuer is knowne by this manner He weares vpon his head a Crowne of Parrats feathers of seuerall colours hauing either about his middle or about his Necke a Chaine of Lions teeth or clawes or of some other strange beast hauing a woodden Sword in his hand and hereby is he knowne to be the King Oftentimes one King warres against another in their Canowes which are Boats cut out of a whole Tree sometimes taking one another the Conquerours eates the Captiues By this time ten weekes were spent and being homewards bound but not the same way that we came for we sailed vnto the Riuer before the winde because it blowes there continually one way which forces all shippes that come thither to returne by a contrarie way The end of the sixth Booke VOYAGES TO AND ABOVT THE SOVTHERNE AMERICA WITH MANY MARINE OBSERVATIONS AND DISCOVRSES OF THOSE SEAS AND LANDS BY ENGLISHMEN AND OTHERS THE SEAVENTH BOOKE REader I here present thee the exactest Treatise of Brasil which I haue seene written by any man especially in the Historie of the multiplied and diuersified Nations and customes of men as also in the naturall Historie of Beasts Serpents Fowles Fishes Trees Plants with diuers other remarkeable rarities of those Regions It was written it seemeth by a Portugall Frier or Iesuite which had liued thirtie yeares in those parts from whom much against his will the written Booke was taken by one
a continuall stamping with the feet standing still or going round about or stirring their bodie or their head and they doe it all by such compasse and pleasantnesse as can be desired at the sound of a Timbrell made after the fashion of those which the children vse in Spaine with manie smal stones within or certaine seeds whereof they make also verie good beads and so they sing dancing altogether for they doe not one thing without the other in such compasse and order that sometime an 100. men dancing and singing together in a row one behind the other doe end all at one stroke as if they were altogether in one place The singers aswell men as women are much esteemed among them in so much that if they take an enemie a good singer and an Inuenter of Verses they therefore spare his life and doe not eate him nor his children The women doe dance together with the men and make many gambolls and gestures with their armes and bodies especially when they dance alone They keepe among themselues differencies of voices in their Consort and ordinarily the women doe sing the Treble Counter and Tenours They are verie wicked especially in weeping for the dead for when any one dieth the Kindred doe cast themselues vpon him in the Net and so suddenly that sometimes they choake him before he dieth seeming to them he is dead And those that cannot cast themselues with the Coarse in the Net doe cast themselues on the ground with such falls and knockes that it seemeth a Miracle they doe not end their liues with the dead and of these falls and mournings they remaine so feeble that sometime they die When they mourne they speak manie pittiful and dolorous words if he die at euening all night long they weep with a high voice that it is a wonder they are not wearie For these mournings they cal the Neighbours kinsmen and if he be one of the principall all the Towne doth meete to mourne and in this they haue also their points of honour and they curse with plagues those which weepe not saying that they shall not bee mourned for After he is dead they wash him and paint him verie brauely as they paint their enemies and after this they couer him with Cotton Yarne that nothing is seene of him and put a couering ouer his face and sitting they put him in a great tinnage or vessell that they haue vnder the Earth for that purpose and doe couer it in such manner that no Earth may come to him and the vessel they couer with earth making him a house where euerie day they carrie him meat For they say that when he is wearie with dancing he commeth thether to eate and so they goe for a certaine time to bewaile him euerie day all his Kindred with him they burie all his Iewels or Brooches that none may see them and grieue thereat But if the dead had any Peece as a Sword c. that had beene giuen him it returneth to him that gaue it and hee taketh it againe wheresoeuer he findeth it therefore they say that when one dieth he loseth all the right of that which was giuen him After the Coarse is buried the Kinsmen are in continuall weeping night and day the one beginning as the other endeth they eate not but by night they hang their Nets neere to the roofes and the women after twentie daies doe cut their haire and this lamenting lasteth a whole Moone the which being ended they make great Wines or Drinkings to put away their mourning The men doe cut their haire and the women doe paint themselues with blacke and these Ceremonies and others being ended they beginne to communicate the one with the other aswell the men as the women After their companions are dead some neuer doe marrie againe nor enter into the Feast of Wines neither paint themselues with blacke but is verie seldome among them because they are much giuen to women and cannot liue without them Before they had any knowledge of the Portugals they vsed tooles and instruments of stone bone wood Canes and teeth of Beasts c. and with these they hewed downe great Woods with wedges of stones helping themselues with fire and they digged also the ground with certaine sharpe stakes and they made their Brooches Beades of Wilkes Bowes and Arrowes as well as now hauing Instruments of Iron but they spent a long time in making of whatsoeuer thing wherefore they esteeme the Iron verie much for the facilitie or ease which they finde in making their things with it And this is the reason wherefore they are glad of Commerce with the Portugals or white men The weapons of this people ordinarily are Bowes and Arrowes and they boast themselues of them and they make them of verie good wood and verie faire interlaid with Palme-tree of sundrie colours they die their strings greene or red and they make their Arrowes verie faire seeking for them the fairest feathers they can find They make these Arrowes of sundrie Canes and fasten in their points the teeth of beasts or certaine verie hard Rushes or sharpe stickes with many snagges and many times they empoison them with herbes These Arrowes to ones sight seeme a thing of mockerie but are verie cruell Weapons and pierce quilted breast-plates or curates and striking in a sticke they cleaue it asunder and sometimes happen to goe through a man and sticke on the ground They doe exercise themselues in these Weapons verie young and are great Archers and so certaine that no Bird can escape them be it neuer so little or any vermine of the Woods and there is no more but if they will shoot an Arrow through the eie of a bird or a man or hit any other thing be it neuer so small they doe it with great facilitie and with their owne safetie and for this they are greatly feared They are stout also and fierce and dreadfull to others They are as vermine of the Woods for they goe a hunting into the Countrie naked and barefoot without any feare They haue a maruellous sight for at a league off they see any thing and in the same manner they heare They guesse verie right ruling themselues by the Sunne they go to all parts they list 200. or 300. leagues through thicke Woods and misse not one â—ot they trauell much and alwaies runnig a gallop especially with some charges no Horse is able to hold out with them They are great fishers and swimmers they feare no Sea nor waues continue a day and a night swimming and the same they doe rowing and sometimes without meate They vse also for Weapons Swords of wood and interlay the ends of them with Palme-tree of sundrie colours and set Plumes on them of diuers colours chiefly in their feasts and slaughters And these Swords are verie cruell for they make no wound but bruise and breake a mans head
his necke and going to the top of an house from thence made many mowes at his master that went to seeke him and breaking them did eate them all before him throwing the shells at his master The beast Cuati is grey and like the Badgers of Portugall it hath the snout and clawes very long it climeth the trees like the Monkie no Snake on Egge no Bird doth escape it nor any thing that it can get They are made tame in the houses but no man can abide them for they deuoure all they will play with little Cats and whelpes they are malicious pleasant and are apt for many things There bee other two or three greater kindes as great Dogges and haue â—ushes like the wilde Boares of Portugall these deuoure beasts and men and when they finde their prey they compasse it about some in one place some in another till they deuoure it Of wilde Cats are many kindes some blacke some white some of a Safran colour and are very faire for any furre These Cats are very terrible and swift they liue by prey and by birds and they assault also the men some of them are as big as Dogs The Iagoarucu are the Dogs of Brasill they are of a grey colour mingled with white very swift and when they yelpe they are like Dogs they haue the tayle very hairy feed on fruits and vpon prey and bite terribly The Tapati are like the Conies of Portugall and here they doe barke like Dogs especially by night and very often the Indians hold this barking for an euill signe they breed three or foure at once they are very rare for they haue many aduersaries as birds of rapine and other beasts that doe eate them The Iaguacini are big as the Foxes of Portugall and haue the same colour of a Foxe they feed onely vpon the Sea-crabs and among the Sugar-canes and destroy many of them they are very sleepie for they kill them sleeping they doe no hurt The Biarataca is of the bignesse of a Cat like a Ferret it hath a white stroake and a grey along the backe like a crosse very well made it feeds vpon birds and their egges and vpon other things especially vpon Ambar and loueth it so well that all the night he goeth by the Sea-side to seeke it and where there is any hee is the first It is greatly feared not because it hath any teeth or any other defensiue thing but it hath a certaine ventositie so strong and so euill of sent that it doth penetrate the wood the stones and all that it encountreth withall and it is such that some Indians haue died with the stench And the Dog that commeth neere it escapeth not and this smell lasteth fifteene twentie or more dayes and it is such that if it lighteth neere some Towne it is presently dis-inhabited And that they may not bee perceiued they scrape a hole in the ground and there within they voide that ventositie and couer it with earth and when they are found that they may not bee taken their defense is to cast out that stench The Priguica which they call of Brasill is worth the seeing it is like a shag-shag-haire Dog or a Land-spaniell they are very ougly and the face is like a womans euill drest his fore and hinder feet are long hee hath great clawes and cruell they goe with the breast on the earth and their young fast to their bellie Though yee strike it neuer so fast it goeth so leasurely that it hath need of a long time to get vp into a tree and so they are easily taken their food is certaine fig-tree leaues and therefore they cannot bee brought to Portugall for as soone as they want them they die presently In these parts are a great multitude of Rats and of them are some ten or twelue kindes some blacke others yellow others dunne all are eaten and are very sauourie especially some great ones that are like Conies and sometimes they are so many that lighting vpon a sowne field they vtterly destroy it Of Land-Snakes and Serpents THe Gibâ—ya is a Snake of the greatest that are in this Countrie and there are some found of twentie foot in length they are very faire but more wonderfull they are in swallowing a whole Deere they haue no poison neither are their teeth great according to the bodie To take their prey whereon they feed they vse this â—leight It layeth it selfe along by the high-wayes and when the prey passeth it leapeth vpon it and windes it selfe in such order and crusheth it so that it breaketh all his bones and afterward licketh it and his licking hath such vertue that it bruiseth or suppleth it all and then it swallowes it vp whole There are others talled Gâ—iraupiaguara that is Eaters of birds Egges it is very blacke long and hath a yellow breast they goe on the tops of trees as it were swimming in the water and no man can runne so fast on the ground as they on the trees these destroy the birds and their egges also There are others very bigge and long called Caninana they are all greene and of a notable beautie These also doe eate egges and birds and kill little chickens There is another called Bâ—ytiapâ—â— that is a Snake that hath a long snout it is very slender and long and feeds onely vpon Frogs The Indians obserue sooth-saying with this that when the woman hath no children they take this Snake and strike her with it on the hips and say she shall presently haue children There is another called Gaitiepia they are found only in the Rar 〈…〉 it is of a notable bignesse he smelleth so much like a Foxe wheresoeuer he goeth that there is none can abide it There is another called Boyuna that is a blacke Snake it is very long and slender it smelleth also very much like a Foxe There is another called Bom because that when it goeth it crieth bom bom it is also very great and doth no hurt There is another called Boicupecanga that is a Snake that hath prickles in his backs they are very great and grosse the prickles are very venomous and all men doe auoide and keepe themselues from them Iararaca is a name that comprehendeth foure kindes of very venomous Snakes The first is greatest called Iararacucu that is great Iararaca and they are of ten spannes long they haue great tushes hidden in the mouth along their gummes and when they bite they stretch them like a finger of the hand they haue their poison in their gummes their teeth crooked and a stroake vpon them whereby the poison runneth Others say they haue it within the tooth which is hollow within it hath so vehement a poison that in foure and twentie houres and lesse it killeth a man the poison is very yellow like Saffran water they bring foorth many young ones at once one hath
ended by the women Moussacat that is the Master of the Familie being busily employed in making of an Arrow casts not so much as his eyes for a certaine time vpon the Guest as if hâ— marked nothing At length comming vnto the Guest hee speaketh vnto him in these words Ere Ioube that is Are you come then how doe you what seeke you c. After hee demandeth whether you be hungrie if you grant that you are presently he commandeth meates of diuers kindes to be set before you in earthen vessels to wit Meale which with them supplieth the place of bread Venison Fowle Fish and other things of that kinde but because there is no vse with them for Tables and Benches all those things are set on the ground As touching Drink if you desire Cao-uin that it be in the house it shall presently be giuen you Lastly after the women haue stoutly solemnized the comming of the Guests with weeping they come vnto them bringing Fruits and other trifling Presents and so secretly demand Coâ—bes Looking-glasses and little Beades of glasse which they winde about their armes Moreouer if you will lodge all night in that Village the Moussacat commandeth a very neat and cleane bed to be hanged vp for you round about which he will cause smal fires to be kindled and often quickned in the night with Bellows which they call Tatapecoua not much vnlike the little round Fannes wherewith the nicer and more delicate sort of women with vs defend the scorching of fire from their faces Not because that Countrie is subiect vnto cold but by reason of the moisture of the night and especially because it is their vsuall manner Now seeing we haue chanced to mention Fire which they call Tata and Smoake Tatatin I thinke it needfull that I declare the excellent manner of kindling the same They haue two kindes of wood whereof the one is very soft but the other very hard which they vse after this manner to kindle fire They sharpen a twig of a foot long of that hard wood at the one end like a Spindle and sticke the point thereof in any piece of that soft wood then laying it on the ground or vpon a stocke they turne that twig swiftly about with the palmes of their hands as if they would pierce an hole through the piece of wood which lieth vnder Through that so swift and violent motion smoake is not onely raised but also fire putting Cotton vnto it or certaine drie leaues in stead of our Countrie tinder fire is very aptly ingendred whereof I my selfe haue made triall After that the Guests haue refreshed themselues with meate and lodged after the manner which we haue declared if they be liberall they vse to giue vnto the men Kniues Scizzers and Pinsers fit for the plucking out of the haires of their beards to the women Combes and Looking-glasses and to the children Fish-hookes But if the Guest want victuals when he hath agreed of the price he may carrie them away Moreouer because they want all kinde of beasts of burden they are all of necessitie to trauell on foot If Strangers bee wearie and giue a Knife to any of the Barbarians he presently offereth his helpe to carrie him that is wearie I my selfe when I liued in those Countries was diuers times carried by those Porters and that surely two miles iourney together And if wee admonished them to rest a little they laughed at vs with these words What Thinke you that wee are so effeminate or of so weake a courage that wee should faint and lie downe vnder our burden I would rather carrie you all the day without any intermission But we breaking out into laughter wondered at those two legged Hackneyes and encouraging them said let vs therefore proceed on the way They exercise naturall charitie abundantly among themselues for they daily giue one vnto another both Fish Meale and Fruits and also other things nay they would be very sorrie if they saw their neighbours want those things which they haue They also vse the like liberalitie towards Strangers whereof it shall be sufficient to bring one example In the tenth Chapter of this Booke I made mention of a certaine danger which my selfe and two other Frenchmen escaped to wit that we were in great perill of death by reason of an huge Lizard which met vs in the way at that time wee wandred two dayes through the middle of the Woods out of the way and indured no meane hunger and at length came vnto a certaine Village called Pauo where wee had lodged before There wee were most liberally entertained by the Barbarians For hauing heard the troubles which wee had suffered and specially the great danger wherein we were that we were likely to haue beene deuoured by wilde beasts but chiefly that wee were in danger to bee slaine by the Margaiates our common enemies neere vnto whose borders wee approached vnawares and seeing also the hurts and scratches of thornes wherewith our skâ—n was miserably rent they tooke our harmes so grieuously that I may here truly affirme that the faigned flatteries wherewith our Countrie people vse to comfort the distressed are farre from the sincere humanitie of that Nation which we call Barbarous For they washed our feet with cleare water which put me in minde of the ancient custome euery one of vs sitting apart vpon an hanging Bed Then the Masters of the Families who had alreadie prouided meates to be prepared for vs and caused new Meale to be ground which as I elsewhere said is nothing inferiour vnto the crumme of white bread in goodnesse presently after wee had beene a little refreshed commanded all the best meates to wit Venison Fowle Fish and the most exquisite and choicest Fruits wherewith they continually abound to bee set before vs. Moreouer the night approching the Moussacat our Host remoueth all the children from vs that wee might the more quietly rest The next day after early in the morning he commeth vnto vs and demandeth goe to Atourassap that is dearly beloued Confederates haue you quietly rested this night wee answered very quietly Then saith he my sonnes rest your selues yet a while for yesterday I perceiued that you were very wearie To be briefe I am not able to expresse with words how friendly and curteously wee were entertained But wee neuer trauelled farre from home without a Sachell full of Merchandises which might serue vs in stead of money among those Barbarians Departing therefore thence we gaue our Hosts what wee thought good to wit Kniues Sizzers Pinsers to the men Combes Looking-glasses Bracelets and glassen Beades to the women and Fish-hookes to the children I one day turned out of the way to lodge in a certaine Village and was requested by my Moussacat to shew him what I had in my Sachell who commanded a great earthen vessell to bee brought wherein to put my merchandises I tooke them all out and set them in order
children I cannot precisely say we hold that it is aboue 400. yeares Our Inca was called Manco Capac and our Coya Mama Ocllo Huaco brother and sister children of the same Sunne and the Moone our progenitors I thinke I haue giuen thee large account of that which thou desiredst and because I would not make thee cry I haue not recited this storie with teares of bloud shed by the eyes as I shed them in my grieued heart to see our Incas come to an end and our Empire lost This relation I haue faithfully translated from my mother tongue which is that of the Inca to the Spanish which is farre short of the Maiestie of the stile nor so significantly as that language affordeth and haue abbreuiated some things which might make odious the discourse It is enough that I haue deliuered the truth of their conceit as befits an Historian Other like things the said Inca told me in those visitings and discourses at my mothers house which I shall recite in their due places The common people of Peru recite other fables of their Originals the Collasuyu which dwell to the South from Cozco and the Cuntisuyu which dwell to the West fabling that after the floud the waters ceasing there appeared a man in Tiahuacanâ— Southwards from Cusco so mightie that he diuided the World into foure parts and gaue them to foure men which hee called Kings to Manco Capac the North the South to Colla to Tocay and Pinahua the East and West and sent each of them to their gouernments c. Those of the East and North haue another tale that foure men and foure women in the beginning of the world came out of a rocke by Paucartampu all brethren and sisters the first of which was Manco Capac and his wife Mama Ocllo which founded Cosco which signifieth a nauell and subiected those Nations the second Ayar Cachi or salt the third Ayai Vâ—hu a kinde of Pepper the fourth Ayar Sanca that is mirth and content These fables they allegorise also and some Spaniards would here finde the eight persons which came forth of Noahs Arke wherewith I meddle not nor with the other fables which other Indian Nations haue of their progenitors there being no honourable stocke which is not deriued from some Fountaine or Lake or Lyon Tigre Beare Eagle Cuntur or other Birds of pray or Hils Caues c. But I by the said Incas relation and of many other Incas and Indians of those townes which the said Inca Manco Capac peopled in the space of twenty yeares which I there liued receiued notice of all that I writ for as much as in my childehood they related their stories to me as they vse to tell tales to children and after being grown in age they gaue me large notice of their Lawes and gouernment comparing this Spanish with the old telling me how their Kings proceeded in peace and warre and how they handled their subiects and as to their owne Sonne they recounted to me all their Idolatrie Rites Ceremonies Sacrifices Feasts â—â—d Superstitions much whereof I haue seene with mine eyes it being not wholly left when I was twelue or thirteene yeares old who was borne eight yeares after the Spaniards had gotten my Countrie I also purposing to write a storie of these things did write to my Schoolefellowes for their helpe to giue me particular information of the seuerall Prouinces of their Mothers each Countrie keeping their annals and traditions which reporting my intent to their Mothers and kindred that an Indian a childe of their owne land ment to write a Historie thereof searched their antiquities and sent them to me whereby I had notice of the conquests and acts of euery Inca. Manco Capac to the East of Cosco peopled thirteene townes of the nation called Poques to the West thirtie with the Nations Masca Chilqui Papuri twentie to the North of foure peoples Mayu Cancu Chinchapucyu Rimac tampu 38. or 40. to the South 18. of which were of the Nation Ayarmaca the others of the Quespicancha Mugna Vrcos Quehuar Huaruc Cauinna This Nation Cauinna beleeued that their first Parents came out of a certaine Lake to which they say the soules of the dead haue recourse and thence return into the bodies which are borne They had an Idoll of dreadfull shape which Manco Capac caused them to leaue and to worship the Sun as did his other vassals These townes from 100. housholds the greater and 30. or 25. the lesse grew to 1000. families and the lesse to 3. or 400. The tirant Atauhuallpa for their priuiledges which the first Inca and his descendents had giuen them destroyed them some in part others wholly Now a Viceroy hath remoued them out of their ancient scituation ioyning fiue or sixe townes together in one place and seuen or eight in another a thing so odious and inconuenient that I cease to mention it Manco Capac to reduce the abuses of their women ordained that adultery should be punished with death as likewise murther and robberie hee enioyned them to keepe but one wise and to marrie in their kindred or tribe that they should not be confounded and that they should marrie from twenty yeares vpwards He caused them to gather together tame and harmelesse cattle in flockes and heards to cloath them the Queene teaching these women to spin and weaue Hee taught them to make the shooe which they call Vsuta He set a Curaca or Cacique ouer each seuerall Nation chusing them to that dignitie which had taken most paines in reducing the Sauages the mildest and best minded to the common good to instruct the rest as fathers He ordained that the fruits which were gathered in each towne should be kept together to giue to each man as he had neede till lands were disposed to each in proprietie Hee taught them how to build a Temple to the Sunne where to sacrifice and doe him worship as the principall God and to adore him as the Sun and Moone which had sent them to reduce them to ciuilitie He caused them to make a house of women for the Sunne when there should be women sufficient of the bloud royall to inhabit it and propounded all things to them in the name of the Sun as inioyned by him which the Indians simply beleeued adoring them for his children and men diuine come from heauen Manco and his successours wore their haire poled vsing to that purpose Rasors of flint a thing so trouble some that one of our Schoolefellowes seeing the readinesse of Scissers said that if your Fathers the Spaniards had onely brought vs Scissers Looking-glasses and Combes wee would haue giuen them all the Gold and Siluer in our Land They weare their eares with wide holes caused by art to grow into a strange and incredible widenesse whereupon the Spaniards called them Oreiones or men with gteat eares Hee ware on his head as a Diadem or royall ensigne a kinde
others as teachers of the Nouices both in â—â—tes and handiworkes as to spin weaue and sow others were porters or prouâ—ders of necessaries They liued in perpetuall closure to their dying day neither might they speake with any man or see any man or woman but those of their owne house Onely the Coya and her daughters might haue leaue to enter and conferre with them By them the Inca sent to know how they did and whereof they had neede The principall gate was not opened but for the Queene or to receiue Nouices They had twentie Porters which men might not passe the second gate vnder paine of death They had fiue hundred Girles for seruice of the Monasterie daughters to those which the first Iâ—ca had priuiledged to be Incas These also had their Mamacunas The principall exercise which the women of the Sunne did was to make all the garments and robes that the Inca or his Coya did weare and those fine robes which were offered to the Sunne The King himselfe might not giue those Garments to any of his Curacas which were not of his bloud They made also the Bread for the Sacrifices to the Sunne at the great feasts Raymi and Sittua called Zancu and the drinke which the Inca then dranke All the Vtensils of the house euen to Pots and Pans were of Gold and Siluer as in the house of the Sunne They had such a Garden also as the other of golden Plants Birds and Beasts Obedience and Virginitie was perpetuall vnder paine of burying quicke Any man which should defloure must not onely dye himselfe but his wife children kindred and neighbours Such the Law but there was neuer found cause of execution Like to these of Cuzco dedicated to the Sunne were other Nunnes and houses in principall Prouinees of the Kingdome In which were admitted those of the bloud Royall pure and mixed and daughters also of the Curacas as a great fauour Also some of the fairest of the common people to be concubines for the Inca and not for the Sunne but kept with like vigilance Their life was like the other and their maintenance from the Inca. Their workes the Inca might impart with others and themselues also he might take out for his Concuâ—ines which then might not returne againe but either serued the Queene or were sent into their Countries with great credit Those also which were old in these houses might haue like license Those that were dedicated for the King present when hee was dead were called Mamacumas and were instructers of those Concubines which entred for the New Inca. Euery of these houses had a Gouernour which must be an Inca a steward and others officers All the vessels were of Gold and Siluer as in the houses of the Sunne and of the King so that all the Gold and Siluer in the whole Kingdome was spent in manner in the Sunnes seruice and of those which were esteemed his descendants The Curacas were stinted what vessels of Plate they might haue for their owne vse which was but little They might neuer be bestowed on other men which had beene chosen women for the Iâ—ca for they held it a profanation of that which was holy yea to be a slaue to the Inca was more esteeâ—ed then to be wife of another Lord. esteeming him as next to the Sunne wherein some Spanish authors haue beene deceiued yet did he reward his great men with women but they were the daughters of other Câ—â—â—cas 〈◊〉 Captaines which held this for a fauour done them that he should esteeme their daughter as a iâ—well which with his owne hand he would bestow Sometimes but â—â—â—dome he be 〈…〉 on some of the Curacas his owne Daughters which were as they esteemed such as were not of the whole bloud bastards which hee had by women not of his Inca-kindred which was holden Diuine Besides these there were many other of Royall bloud which liued retired in their owne houses with vow of Virginity though not inclosed in any Monastery which tooke libertie to goe out to visit their kindred neere them in their sicknesse or trauell Such were highly reputed and were called Ocllo a sacred name and if they lost their chastitie were burned aliue or cast to the Lyons Denne One of these very old I knew which visited my Mother beeing her Grandfathers sister Widowes in the first yeere of their widow-hood kept very close those which had no children married againe but those which had continued continent all their liues in which respect the Lawes allowed them many priuiledges and the tillage of their grounds before the Cutacas of Incas And for matter of Marriage in Cozco once in a yeere or two the King assembled all the youth of both Sexes of his owne Linage the Males of twentie to foure and twentie the Maids of eighteene and so to twentie he permitted them not sooner to marry and called them forth such a man and such a maide and hauing ioyned them with his owne hand deliuered them to their Parents after which the Marriage Feast was solemnized by the new Parents two foure or sixe dayes These were legitimate wides and the most honoured The day following his Officers did the like for the Citizens obseruing the distinction of High and Low Cozco The Gouernour in each Diuision with the Curacas did the like in their gouernments the Inca neuer vsurping but assisting the Curacas Iurisdiction Those of one Prouince might not marry with those of another but obserued the Rites of the Tribes of Israel not might they got to liue out of their Prouinces or out of their owne Townes or the Wards of the same Towne In defect of children by the lawfull Wife the Inheritance by Law fell on the eldest of the bloud lawfull as from Huascar to Manco and neuer to Bastards for which Lawes sake Atahualpa destroyed all the Royall bloud hee being a Bastard Others might not marrie their sister but the Inca only The Prouinces differed in some cases the elder Sonne of the Inca succeeding in other places all the brethren after each other and somewhere the best esteemed of the Sonnes Such vsages were before the Incas times and not broken by them The Incas made a great Feast at the wayning of theâ—â—â—â—â—â—st Son which was at two yeeres old or vpwards they first cut off his haire with a flint-razor the Fathers beginning each following in his dignity then did they name him and offer presents The same was imitated by the Curacas and the people Their children were brought vp without any dainty nicenesse Assoone as they were born they washed them in cold water and then put them in blankets They gaue them the breast but at morning and noone and night thriâ—â— a day how much soeuer they cried lest they should be gluttons But if I should follow our Author in houshold affaires I should be too long Inca Roca their sixth King pursued his Northerne
Subiects and for better execution of Iustice by his Officers and Iudges in which he spent foure yeeres This done he leuied forty thousand Souldiers to proceed in the course of his Fathers which palliated their ambition of Souereigntie and Dominion with reducing men from Barbarisme and beastiality to Ciuility and Religion He marched to Cassamarca and entred the Prouince of Chachapuya Eastwards from Cassamarca a Countrey of valiant men and very faire women They worshipped Snakes and the bird Cuntur was their principall God It then contayned aboue fortie thousand Families Their chiefe Armes were slings and they wore a kinde of sling-net for their head tyre hee cals both by the name honda Beyond them are the Huacrachucu a fierce and warly Nation which weare on their head a blacke leash of Wooll with white flyes here and there and for a feather a piece of a Deeres horne these worshipped in those times Snakes and kept them pictured in their Temples and houses These lay in the way to the former and much bloud was lost in fight on both sides whereupon the Inca after their ancient custome sought to reduce them by faire meanes intimating that hee came more to doe them good as they had done to other Nations suffering the Curacas to rule still then to rule ouer them seeking no more but that they should worship the Sunne and leaue their barbarousnesse He diuided his Armie and sent some to take the most commodious places so that they were forced to seeke peace He stayed there the Countrey being rainy till the next Summer and sent for twenty thousand men more instructing the Huacrachucus meane while in his deuotions and Lawes and to conuay away the waters and make the grounds fit for seed to their great benefit The next Summer hee entred the Prouince Chachapuya where notwithstanding the wonted gentle message he was incountred with a cruell warre This Prouince was fiftie leagues long and twenty broad reaching to Muyupampa which is thirtie leagues long The Hils were craggie and in places very steepe and snowie three hundred which he sent to spie were drowned in the snow not one escaping The prowesse and numbers of the Inca brought all by degrees to subiection Pias Charmac cassa an open passage of the snowie Hill very dangerous where the three hundred were lost Cuntur Marca Cassa Marquilla all Mountaynous and craggie places till hee came to Raymipampa so called of a Feast which he solemnized there to the Sunne in his Campe being a faire Valley and thence to Muyupampa where Ancohualla entred as is before said in Viracochas time rather then he would bee a subiect to the Inca these and Cascuyunca now yeelded The next Summer hee marched on to Huancapampa a great Nation but diuided amongst themselues naked and warring not for wealth but women worshipping Birds Beasts Plants euery one as himselfe pleased These he tamed by hunger staruing such as came not in and gaue them Masters to instruct them in husbandry and how to clothe themselues to water their fields and to plant Townes so that it became one of the best Prouinces in Peru. More to ennoble it hee after built there a Temple and house of Virgins prohibiting the eating of mans flesh and gaue them Priests and men learned in the Lawes to instruct them Afterwards he added three great Prouinces Cassa Ayahuaca and Callua to his Signory which liued ciuilly hauing Townes and Fortresses and a kind of Republike or free State hauing their meetings and choice of Gouernours These Conquests ended he spent long time in visiting his Kingdom and buâ—lding Temples Nunneries Store-houses Aquaeducts especially taking care of the Fortresse at Cozco Some yeeres this way spent hee marched Northward to Huanucu which containeth many disunited Nations whom he easily conquered and planted Townes there being a fertile Countrie and temperate making it the chiefe Prouince of many others in those Confines He built there a Temple for the Sunne and a house of chosen Virgins twenty thousand Indians performing seruices in course to those two houses He went next to the Prouince Cannari which ware their haire long tied on a knot in the Crowne By these head-tires in the time of the Incas each Indian was knowne of what Nation he was which in my time they continued but now they say all is confounded These Cannaris before this worshipped the Moone as chiefe Deity and great Trees and Stones in the second place but now were brought to the Incas Sunne-religion and their Countrie ennobled with a Temple Nunnerie Palaces Water-passages c. The Nation Quillacu is belowe the Cannari the most miserable of Nations neither hauing good land nor aire nor water whence grew a Prouerbe applied to couetous misers hee is a very Quillacu on these the Inca imposed a tribute of Lice that so they might learne to be cleanly Tupac Inca Yupanqui and his sonne Huayna Capac much ennobled those Prouinces of the Cannaris and of Tumipampa with building Royall houses adorning the Lodgings in stead of Tapestry with counterfeits of Herbs Plants and Creatures of gold and siluer the Porches chased with Gold and inlayed with Emeralds and Turquesses a Temple also of the Sunne enchased with Gold and Siluer the Indians custome being to make oftentation of seruice to their Kings and to flatter them filling their Temples and Palaces with all the treasures they were able in Pots Pannes and other vessels of gold and siluer and much costly raiment Hauing returned to Cozco his ambition not long after brought him backe to Tumipampa where he gained many Prouinces vnto the confines of the Kingdome of Quitu viz. Chanchan Moca Quesna Pumallacta that is the Land of Lions by reason of the store there being also worshipped for Gods Ticzampi Tiu cassa Capampi Vrcollasu and Tincuracu barren and barbarous Regions which he sent Masters to teach Ciuilitie and Religion After that he made another expedition with fortie thousand men to Quitu the name of the Kingdome and King It is seuenty leagues long and thirtie broad fertile and rich They worshipped Deere and great Trees The warre continuing long he sent for his sonne Huayna Capac to come with twelue thousand men more to exercise him in warre Huayna Capac signifieth from a childe rich in magnanimous exploits Capac was a title giuen to things of greatest eminence And this seemed praeeminent in him that he neuer denied any woman any sute vâ—ing to them gentle compellations of Mother Sister Daughter according to their age c. Tupac Inca returned to Cozco and left his sonne to dispatch the warre which was three yeeres before Quitu was reduced beside two yeeres which his father spent the reason whereof was the Incas custome to gaine not by fire and sword but as they could make the Natiues forsake it which had this effect that their conquest was more durable and their vassals bare them better affection At the
had prouided that by the way foure or fiue great fires should bee made some small space distant each from other and at euery one of them they warmed vs and when they saw that we had taken a little strength and heate they brought vs to another with so great care that they did not so much as suffer vs to set our feete on the ground and after this manner we were brought vnto their houses where we found that they had prouided an house for vs many fires therein and about one houre after we were come thither they beganne to dance and reioyce which continued all the night Although amongst vs there was neither ioy nor sleepe expecting when they would haue sacrificed vs. In the morning they returned to giue vs fish and rootes and vsed vs so well that wee somewhat assured our selues and lost some part of the feare of sacrificing In those dayes wherein wee abode there I saw a small Net with one of those Indians and knew that it was not any of them which wee gaue them and demanding whence they had it they answered me by signes that other men such as we were gaue it them who abode behind that place I seeing this sent two Christians and two Indians to shew them those men and being gone they met with them very neere who came to seeke vs out because the Indians of those places had told them of vs. These men were Captaine Andrea Dorante and Alonso del Castiglio with all the men of their Boat And being come vnto vs they were afraid to behold vs in that manner wherein we were and were very sorrowfull that they had not any thing to giue vs because they had no other garments then those which they wore And they abode there with vs and told vs how on the fift day of that same moneth their Boat had crossed ouer one league and an halfe from thence and that they had escaped without losing any thing Wee all agreed together to trimme that Boat of theirs and that all such as had strengh and abilitie to doe it should goe therein and that the rest should remaine there vntill they recouered and that when they were able they should goe along the Coast and waite there till God should conduct them with the rest of vs vnto a Land of the Christians And as we determined so wee did and before we lanched the Boat into the water Tauera an Horseman of our companie died and the Boat which we thought should carrie vs she also made her end and was not able to vphold her selfe but was suddenly drowned Whereupon being in that manner aforesaid and naked and the weather so vnseasonable to trauell and passe ouer Riuers and Gulfes by swimming and hauing no victuall or any sustenance nor meanes to carrie them we determined to doe that which necessitie and force compelled vs vnto that is to say to winter there And wee likewise agreed that foure of our lustiest and strongest men should goe to Panuco supposing it neere vnto that place And that if it should please our Lord God that they arriued there they should giue intelligence that we were there and tell them of our necessitie and miseries They who went were very great swimmers the one was called Alnaro Ferrante a Portugall who was a Carpenter and a Mariner the second was called Mendos and the third Figeroa a natiue of Toledo and the fourth was borne in Zaffra and they carried an Indian with them of the Iland of Auia These foure Christians being departed within few dayes after there came such vnseasonable weather of cold and tempests that the Indians could not finde the roots and out of the channels where they were wont to fish they digged no fruit at all and things falling out so vnhappily many people began to die and fiue Christians who were in Xamo vpon that Coast came to such extremitie that they eate one another vntill there remained but one onely because there was none to eate him Their names are these Siera Diego Lopez Corral Palatio Gonzalo Ruis. The Indians were so altered through this accident and tooke so great an offence that without doubt if they had knowne it in the beginning they would haue killed them all so that all wee had beene in very great danger Finally in a small time of fourescore men which wee were in all there remained onely fifteene After this mortalitie a certaine infirmitie of the stomacke happened to the Indians through the which halfe of them died and they beleeued that wee were the men that killed them and holding it for an assured truth they contended among themselues to kill all those few of vs that were remaining and now comming to put it in execution an Indian which I had said vnto them that they should not beleeue that we were those that killed them for if we had such power we would haue procured that so many men of our owne should not haue died which they had seene dead without any abilitie of ours to remedie and helpe them and that now wee were very few remaining whereof none had done them any preiudice or harme wherefore it were better that they suffer vs to liue Thus it pleased our Lord God that the rest followed his counsell and iudgement and so ceassed from that purpose Wee called this Iland the Iland of Malhado The people which wee found there are of a great stature and well set and haue no other weapons but Bowes and Arrowes with the which they are exceeding readie and quicke The men haue one of their paps pierced from the one side to the other and there are some who haue them both pierced and in the hole which they make they carrie a Cane acrosse of the length of two spannes and an halfe and two fingers thicke They likewise haue the nether lippe bored and within the same they carrie a piece of a thin Cane about halfe a finger thicke The women indure much drudgerie and labour The habitation which they make in that Iland is from October vntill the end of Februarie and their food is the rootes aforesaid digged vnder water in Nouember and December They haue Weares but haue no fish but at this time and before that they eate roots At the end of Februarie they goe into other Parts to seeke food because the roots beginne then to growe and are not very good This Nation aboue all other parts of the world loue their children and vse them best And when it happeneth that any one of their children dieth the father mother and kindred with all the people lament him and the mourning and lamentation continueth one whole yeere so that euery day before the Sunne ariseth the parents beginne first to lament and after them all the people and they doe the same at noon and in the morning and the yeere being ended they accomplish their Funerals and honourable rites of Buriall which they performe vnto the dead
side wherewith was made a Piragna or Barke wherein were embarked thirty men well armed which went out of the Bay to the Sea looking for the Brigandines Sometimes they fought with the Indians which passed along the harbour in their Canoes Vpon Saturday the twenty nine of Nouember there came an Indian through the Watch vndiscouered and set the Towne on fire and with the great winde that blew two parts of it were consumed in a short time On Sunday the twenty eight of December came Iohn Danusco with the Brigandines The Gouernor sent Francisco Maldonado a Captain of footmen with fiftie men to discouer the coast Westward to seeke some Port because he had determined to goe by land discouer that part That day there went out eight horsemen by commandement of the Gouernour into the field two leagues about the Towne to seeke Indians for they were now so emboldened that within two crossebow shot of the campe they came slew men They found two men and a woman gathering French Beanes the men though they might haue fled yet because they would not leaue the woman which was one of their wiues they resolued to die fighting and before they were slaine they wounded three horses whereof one died within a few daies after Calderan going with his men by the Sea-coast from a wood that was neere the place the Indians set vpon him and made him forsake his way and many of them that went with him for sooke some necessary victuals which they carried with them Three or foure dayes after the limited time giuen by the Gouernor to Maldonado for his going and comming being already determined and resolued if within eight dayes he did not come to tarry no longer for him hee came and brought an Indian from a Prouince which was called Ochus sixty leagues Westward from Apalache where he had found a good Port of good depth and defense against weather And because the Gouernor hoped to finde a good Countrie forward he was very well contented And he sent Maldonado for victuals to Hauana with order that hee would tarrie for him at the Port of Ochus which he had discouered for he would goe seeke it by land and if he should chance to stay and not come thither that summer that then he should returne to Hauana should come againe the next summer after and tarry for him at that Port for he said he would doe none other thing but goe to seeke Ochus Francisco Maldonado departed and in his place for Captaine of the footemen remained Iohn de Guzman Of those Indians which were taken in Napetuca the treasurer Iohn Gaytan had a yong man which said that he was not of that Countrie but of another far off toward the Sunrising and that it was long since he had trauelled to see Countries and that his Countrie was called Yupaha and that a woman did gouerne it and that the Towne where shee was resident was of a wonderfull bignesse and that many Lords round about were tributaries to her and some gaue her clothes and others Gold in abundance and he told how it was taken out of the Mines and was moulten refined as if he had seene it done or the Diuell had taught it him So that all those which knew any thing concerning the same said that it was impossible to giue so good a relation without hauing seene it And all of them as if they had seene it by the signes that he gaue beleeued all that he said to be true On Wednesday the third of March of the yeere 1540. the Gouernour departed from Anaica Apalache to seeke Yupaha He commanded his men to goe prouided with Maiz for sixtie leagues of desert The horsemen carried their Maiz on their horses and the footemen at their sides because the Indians that were for seruice with their miserable life that they lead that winter being naked and in chaines died for the most part Within foure dayes iourney they came to a great Riuer and they made a piragua or ferrie boate and because of the great current they made a cable with chaines which they fastened on both sides of the Riuer and the ferrie boate went along by it and the horses swam ouer being drawne with capstans Hauing passed the Riuer in a day and a halfe they came to a Towne called Capachiqui Vpon Friday the eleuenth of March they found Indians in armes The next day fiue Christians went to seeke morters which the Indians haue to beate their Maiz and they went to certaine houses on the backe-side of the Campe enuironed with a wood and within the wood were many Indians which came to spâ—e vs of the which came other fiue and set vpon vs. One of the Christians came running away giuing an alarme vnto the Campe. Those which were most ready answered the alarme They found one Christian dead and three sore wounded The Indians fled vnto a lake adioyning neere a very thicke wood where the horses could not enter The Gouernour departed from Capachiqui and passed through a desert On Wednesday the twenty one of the moneth he came to a Towne called Toalli And from thence forward there was a difference in the houses For those which were behinde vs were thatched with straw and those of Toalli were couered with reedes in manner of tiles These houses are very clenly Some of them had wals daubed with clay which shewed like a mudwall In all the cold Countries the Indians haue euery one a house for the winter daubed with clay within without and the doores is very little they shut it by night and make fire within so that they are in it as warme as in a stoue and so it continueth all night that they neede not cloathes and besides these they haue others for Summer and their kitchins neere them where they make fire and bake their bread and they haue barbacoas wherein they keepe their Maiz which is an house set vp in the aire vpon foure stakes boorded about like a chamber and the floore of it is of cane hurdles The difference which Lords or principall mens houses haue from the rest besides they be greater is that they haue great galleries in their fronts vnder them seates made of canes in manner of benches and round about them they haue many lotts wherein they lay vp that which the Indians doe giue them for tribute which is Maiz Deeres skins and mantles of the Countrie which are like blankets they make them of the inner rinde of the barkes of trees some of a kinde of grasse like vnto nettles which being beaten is like vnto flaxe The women couer themselues with these Mantles they put one about them from the waste downeward and another ouer their shoulder with their right arme out like vnto the Egyptians The men weare but one Mantle vpon their shoulders after the same manner and haue their secrets hid with a Deeres skin made like a linnen breech
bare sway and ruled that was nine yeares there was no more care of teaching or bringing the Indians to saluation neither was there any more labor employed or once thought of to that purpose then if they had beene Trees Stones Dogs or Cats He wasted great townes and fortresses he gaue to one Spaniard a hundred Indians to another fiftie to another more or lesse as euery man was in liking or fauour and as it pleased him to grant He gaue children and old men women with childe and in childebed men of countenance and commons the naturall Lords of the Townes and Countries he parted them among those to whom hee wished most wealth and commoditie vsing in his Letters of command this speech following To you such a man are giuen so many Indians with their Cacique them to vse in their Mines and affaires So as all great and small yong and old that could stand on their feete men women with childe or in childebed one or other trauailed and wrought so long as they had any breath in their bodies He gaue leaue to take away married men and to make them draw Gold tenne twenty thirtie fortie or eightie leagues or farther The women remained in farme houses and granges in great labours So that the man and wife should not see one another in eight or ten moneths or a whole yeare And at their meeting they were so worne with labour and hunger that they had no minde of cohabitation whereby their generation ceased and their poore children perâ—â—hed because the mothers through hunger and trauaile had no milke wherewith to nourish them This was a cause that in the I le of Cuba one of vs being there there perished in the space of three moneths for hunger 7000. children some desperate women strangled and killed their owne children others finding themselues with childe did eate certaine hearbes thereby to loose their fruit so that the men died in the Mines the women perished in the farme houses their whole generation in a short space decayed and all the Countrey lay desolate The said Gouernour to the end without release to keepe them in continuall labour still gaue them away and yet besides their great labors he suffered them rigorously and very austerely to be misused For the Spaniards that had them in command appointed certaine hangmen ouer them some in the Mines whom they tearmed Miniero others in the Farmes that were called Estanciero vnnaturall and pittilesse persons that beate them with staues and cords boxing them pricking them with needles and still calling them dogges neither did they euer shew any signe of humanity or clemencie but all their dealings did consist of extreame seueritie riot and bitternesse The Gouernour had also in the Spanish Townes and Forts certaine of the most honorable and principall persons about him whom he called Visitors vnto whom also besides their other ordinary portions that he had giuen them he gaue in respect of their offices one hundred Indians to serue them These in the Townes were the greatest executioners as being more cruell then the rest before whom Athuaziles del camoo brought all such as had bin taken in this chase The accuser he that had them in command was present and accused them saying This Indian or those Indians are dogs and will doe no seruice but doe daily run to the Mountaines there to become loyterers and vagabonds and therefore required that they might be punished Then the Visitor with his owne hands bound them to a Pale and taking a pitched cord in the Gallies called an Eele which is as it were an iron rod gaue them so many stripes and beate them so cruelly that the bloud running downe diuers pâ—rts of their bodies they were left for dead God is witnesse of the cruelties committed among those lambs Throughout the yeare they neuer knew holiday neither might be suffered from labour little or much Besides that during all this toyle they neuer had sufficient food no not of Caçabi Some therâ— were that through niggardlinesse wanting meate to giue them would send them two or three dayes abroad into the fields and Mountaines to feede where they might satisfie themselues with such fruite as hang on the trees and then vpon the force of that which they brought in their guts would force them to labour two or three dayes more without giuing them any one morsell to eate The Gouernour commanded they should be paid their day wages and expences for any labour or seruice that they should doe to the Spaniard and their wages was three blankes euery two dayes which in the yeare amounted to halfe a Castelin Thus grew they into sickenesse through long and grieuous trauailes and that was soone caught among them When the Spaniards perceiued the sickenesse increase so as there was no profit or seruice to be looked for at their hands then would they send them home to their houses giuing them to spend in some thirty forty or eightie leagues trauaile some halfe dozen of Radish or Refortes that is a kinde of nauet roote and a little Caçabi wherewith the poore men trauailed not farre before they should desperately dye some went two or three leagues some ten or twenty so desirous to get to their owne home there to finish their hellish life that they suffered that they euen fell downe dead by the wayes so as many times we found some dead others at deaths doore others groning and pittifully to their powers pronouncing this word hunger hunger Then the Gouernour seeing that the Spaniard had in this wise slaine halfe or two third parts of these Indians whom hee had giuen them in command he came a fresh to draw new lots and make a new distribution of Indians still supplying the number of his first gift and this did hee almost euery yeare Pedrarias entred into the firme land as a Wolfe that had long beene starued doth into a flocke of quiet and innocent Sheepe and Lambs and as Gods wrath and scourge committing infinite slaughters robberies oppressions and cruelties together with those Spaniards whom he had leuied and laid waste so many Townes and Villages which before had bin replenished with people as it were Ant hils as the like was neuer seene heard of or written by any that in our daies haue dealt in Histories He robbed his Maiestie Subiects with those whom he tooke with him and the harme that he did amounted to aboue foure yea six Millions of Gold hee laid aboue fortie leagues of land desart namely from Darien where he first arriued vnto the Prouince of Nicaraga one of the fruitfullest richest and best inhabited lands in the world From this cursed wretch sprang first the pestilence of giuing the Indians in command which afterward hath infected all those Indies where any Spaniards doe inhabit and by whom all these Nations are consumed so that from him his commands haue proceeded the certaine waste and desolation that your Maiestie haue sustained in these so great lands and dominions
which being done he went and sat him downe in his place then immediately another rose vp and did the like and so they continued vntill the meate was sodden When they had ended their Feast they began to dance taking the heads of their enemies in their hands which hanged vpon the wall behinde them and in signe of ioy there is one or two which sing moderating their voice by the measure ef their hands which they beate vpon their knees then they rest sometimes and cry ho ho ho and begin againe to dance blow like a man that is out of breath They made this triumph for a victory which they had gotten of the Irocois of whom they had slaine some hundred whose heads they cut off which they had with them for the ceremony They were three Nations when they went to war the Estechemins Algoumequins and Mountainers to the number of a thousand when they went to war against the Irocois whom they encountred at the mouth of the Riuer of the said Irocois and slew an hundred of them The war which they make is altogether by surprises for otherwise they would be out of hart they feare the said Irocois very much which are in greater number then the said Mountainers Estechemins and Algoumequins The twenty eight day of the said moneth they encamped themselues in the foresaid hauen of Tadousac where our Ship was at the break of day their said great Sagamo came out of his Cabine going round about all the other Cabins and cried with a loud voice that they should dislodge to goe to Tadousac where their good friends were Immediately euery man in a trice tooke down his cabin and the said grand Captain first began to take his canoe carried it to the Sea where he embarked his wife and children store of furs and in like manner did well neere two hundred canowes which goe strangely for though our Shallop was well manned yet they went more swift then we There are but two that row the man and the wife Their Canowes are some eight or nine pases long and a pace or a pace a halfe broad in the middest and grow sharper sharper toward both the ends They are very subiect to ouerturning if one know not how to guide them for they are made of the barke of a Birch tree strengthned within with little circles of wood well handsomely framed and are so light that one man will carry one of them easily and euery Canowe is able to carry the weight of a Pipe when they would passe ouer any land to goe to some Riuer where they haue busines they carry them with them Their Cabins are low made like Tents couered with the said barke of a tree and they leaue in the roofe about a foot spacevncouered wherby the light commeth in and they make many fires right in the midst of their Cabin where they are sometimes ten housholds together They lie vpon skins one by another and their dogs with them They were about a thousand persons men women and children The place of the point of S. Matthew where they were first lodged is very pleasant they were at the bottome of a little hill which was ful of Fir Cypresse trees vpon this point there is a little leuel plot which discouereth far off vpon the top of the said hill there is a Plain a league long and halfe a league broad couered with trees the soile is very sandy and is good pasture all the rest is nothing but Mountains of very bad rocks the Sea beateth round about the said hil which is dry for a large halfe league at a low water THe ninth day of Iune the Sauages began to make merrie together and to make their feast as I haue said before and to dance for the aforesaid victory which they had obtained against their enemies After they had made good cheere the Algoumequins one of the three Nations went out of their Cabins and retired themselues apart into a publike place and caused all their women and girles to sit downe in rankes one by the other and stood themselues behinde then singing all in one time as I haue said before And suddenly all the women and maidens began to cast off their Mantles of skins and stripped themselues starke naked shewing their priuities neuerthelesse odorned with Matachia which are paternosters and chaines enterlaced made of the haire of the Porkespicke which they dye of diuers colours After they had made an end of their songs they cried all with one voyce ho ho ho at the same instant all the women and maidens couered themselues with their Mantels for they lye at their feete and rest a short while and then eftsoones beginning againe to sing they let fall their Mantels as they did before They goe not out of one place when they dance and make certaine gestures and motions of the body first lifting vp one foote and then another stamping vpon the ground While they were dancing of this dance the Sagamo of the Algoumequins whose name was Besouat sat before the said women and virgins betweene two staues whereon the heads of their enemies did hang. Sometimes he rose and made a speech and said to the Mountainers and Estechemains ye see how we reioyce for the victory which we haue obtained of our enemies ye must doe the like that we may be contented then they all together cried ho ho ho. Assoone as hee was returned to his place the great Sagamo and all his companions cast off their Mantels being starke naked saue their priuities which were couered with a little skin and tooke each of them what they thought good as Matachias Hatchets Swords Kettels Fat Flesh of the Orignac Seales in briefe euery one had a present which they gaue the Algoumequins After all these ceremonies the dance ceased and the said Algoumequins both men and women carried away their presents to their lodgings They chose out all ò two men of each Nation of the best disposition which they caused to run and he which was the swiftest in running had a present All these people are of a very cheerefull complexion they laugh for the most part neuerthelesse they are somewhat melancholly They speake very distinctly as though they would make themselues well vnderstood and they stay quickely bethinking themselues a great while and then they begin their speech againe they often vse this fashion in the middest of their Orations in counsaile where there are none but the principals which are the ancients the women and children are not present All these people sometimes endure so great extremity that they are almost constrained to eate one another through the great colds and snowes for the Beasts and Fowles whereof they liue retire themselues into more hot climates I thinke if any would teach them how to liue and to learne to till the ground and other things they would learne very well for I
so sawcy with my Tobacco which words without any further repetition he suddenly spake so plaine and distinctly as if hee had beene a long Scholer in the Language Many other such trials wee had which are here needlesse to repeat Their women such as wee saw which were but three in all were but lowe of stature their eye-browes haire apparell and manner of wearing like to the men fat and very well-fauoured and much delighted in our companie the men are very dutifull towards them And truly the wholsomnesse and temperature of this Climate doth not onely argue this people to be answerable to this description but also of a perfect constitution of body actiue strong healthfull and very witty as the sundry toyes of theirs cunningly wrought may easily witnesse For the agreeing of this Climate with vs I speake of my selfe and so I may iustly doe for the rest of our companie that we found our health and strength all the while we remayned there so to renew and encrease as notwithstanding our diet and lodging was none of the best yet not one of our companie God be thanked felt the least grudging or inclination to any disease or sicknesse but were much fatter and in better health than when we went out of England but after our Barke had taken in so much Sassafras Cedar Furres Skinnes and other commodities as were thought conuenient some of our companie that had promised Captaine Gosnold to stay hauing nothing but a sauing voyage in their mindes made our companie of Inhabitants which was small enough before much smaller so as Captaine Gosnold seeing his whole strength to consist but of twelue men and they but meanly prouided determined to returne for England leauing this Iland which he called Elizabeths Iland with as many true sorrowfull eyes as were before desirous to see it So the eighteenth of Iune being Friday we weighed and with indifferent faire winde and weather came to anchor the three and twentieth of Iuly being also Friday in all bare fiue weekes before Exmouth Your Lordships to command IOHN BRERETON A briefe Note of such commodities as we saw in the Countrie notwithstanding our small time of stay TRees Sassafras trees the roots whereof at three shillings the pound are three hundred thirty sixe pound the tunne Cedars tall and straight in great abundance Cypres trees Oakes Wal-nut trees great store Elmes Beech Hollie Hasle-nut trees Cherrie trees Cotton trees and other fruit-trees to vs vnknowne The finder of our Sassafras in these parts was one Master Robert Meriton Fowles Eagles Hernshawes Cranes Bitters Mallards Teales Geese Pengwins Ospreis and Hawkes Crowes Rauens Mewes Doues Sea-pies Black-birds with carnation wings Beasts Deere in great store very great and large Beares Luzernes blacke Foxes Beauers Otters Wilde-cats very large and great Dogs like Foxes blacke and sharpe nosed Conies Fruits Plants and Herbes Tabacco excellent sweet and strong Vines more plenty than in France Ground-nuts good meate and also medicinable Strawberries Rasp-berries Gooseberries Hurtleberries Pease growing naturally Flaxe Iris Florentina whereof Apothecaries make sweet balls Sorrell and many other herbes where with they made Sallets Fishes Whales Tortoises both on Land and Sea Seales Cods Mackerell Breames Herrings Thornbacke Hakes Rock-fish Dog-fish Lobsters Crabbes Mussels Wilkes Cockles Scallops Oysters Snakes foure foot in length and sixe inches about which the Indians eate for dainty meate the skinnes whereof they vse for girdles Colours to die with red white and blacke Mettals and Stones Copper in great abundance Emerie stones for Glasiers and Cutlers Alabaster very white Stones glittering and shining like Minerall stones Stones of a blue mettalline colour which we take to bee Steele oare Stones of all sorts for buildings Clay red and white which may proue good Terra Sigillata A briefe Note of the sending another Barque this present yeere 1602. by Sir WALTER RALEIGH for the searching out of his Colonie in Virginia SAmuel Mace of Weimouth a very sufficient Mariner an honest sober man who had beene at Uirginia twice before was employed thither by Sir Walter Raleigh to finde those people which were left there in the yeere 1587. To whose succour he hath sent fiue seuerall times at his owne charges The parties by him set forth performed nothing some of them following their owne profit elsewhere others returning with friuolous allegations At this last time to auoide all excuse hee bought a Barke and hired all the companie for wages by the moneth who departing from Weimouth in March last 1602. fell fortie leagues to the South-westward of Hataraske in 34. degrees or thereabout and hauing there spent a moneth when they came along the coast to seeke the people they did it not pretending that the extremitie of weather and losse of some principall ground-tackle forced and feared them from searching the Port of Hataraske to which they were sent From that place where they abode they brought Sassafras Radix Chinae or the China Root Beniamin Cassia lignea and a rind of a tree more strong than any Spice as yet vnknowne with diuers other commodities which hereafter in a larger discourse may come to light CHAP. XII A Voyage set out from the Citie of Bristoll at the charge of the chiefest Merchants and Inhabitants of the said Citie with a small Ship and a Barke for the discouerie of the North part of Virginia in the yeere 1603. vnder the command of me MARTIN PRINGE VPon many probable and reasonable inducements vsed vnto sundry of the chiefest Merchants of Bristoll by Master Richard Hakluyt Prebendary of Saint Augustines the Cathedrall Church of the said Citie after diuers meetings and due consultation they resolued to set forth a Voyage for the farther Discouerie of the North part of Uirginia And first they sent the said Master Hakluyt accompanied with one Master Iohn Angell and Master Robert Saltern which had beene in the said Discouerie the yeere before with Captaine Bar tholomew Gosnold to obtaine permission of Sir Walter Raleigh which had a most ample Patent of all those parts from Queene Elizabeth to entermeddle and deale in that action Leaue being obtained of him vnder his hand and Seale they speedily prepared a small ship called the Speed-well in burthen about fiftie tunnes manning the same with some thirtie men and Boyes wherein went for Master and chiefe Commander in the Voyage one Martin Pring a man very sufficient for his place and Edmund Iones his Mate and Robert Salterne aboue mentioned as their chiefe Agent with a Barke called the Discouerer of six and twentie tunnes or thereabout wherein went for Master William Browne and Samuell Kirkland his Mate both good and skilfull Mariners being thirteene men and a Boy in all in that Barke The aforesaid ship and Barke were plentifully victualied for eight monethes and furnished with slight Merchandizes thought fit to trade with the people of the Countrey as Hats of diuers colours greene blue and yellow apparell of coarse Kersie and Canuasse readie made Stockings
vnwelcome for where are most women there is greatest plentie When a woman hath her monethly termes shee separateth her selfe from all other company and liueth certaine dayes in a house alone after which she washeth her selfe and all that shee hath touched or vsed and is againe receiued to her husbands bed or family For adultery the husband will beat his wife and put her away if he please Some common strumpets there are as well as in other places but they are such as either neuer married or widowes or put away for adultery for no man will keepe such an one to wife In matters of vniust and dishonest dealing the Sachim examineth and punisheth the same In case of thefts for the first offence hee is disgracefully rebuked for the second beaten by the Sachim with a cudgell on the naked backe for the third hee is beaten with many stroakes and hath his nose slit vp ward that thereby all men may both know and shun him If any man kill another hee must likewise die for the same The Sachim not onely passeth the sentence vpon malefactors but executeth the same with his owne hands if the partie bee then present if not sendeth his owne knife in case of death in the hands of others to performe the same But if the offender bee to receiue other punishment hee will not receiue the same but from the Sachim himselfe before whom being naked he kneeleth and will not offer to runne away though hee beat him neuer so much it being a greater disparagement for a man to cry during the time of his correction then is his offence and punishment As for their apparell they weare breeches and stockings in one like some Irish which is made of Deere skinnes and haue shooes of the same leather They weare also a Deeres skinne loose about them like a cloake which they will turne to the weather side In this habite they trauell but when they are at home or come to their iourneyes end presently they pull of their breeches stockings and shooes wring out the water if they bee wet and drie them and rub or chafe the same Though these be off yet haue they another small garment that couereth their secrets The men weare also when they goe abroad in cold weather an Otter or Fox skin on their right arme but onely their bracer on the left Women and all of that sex weare strings about their legs which the men neuer doe The people are very ingenious and obseruatiue they keepe account of time by the Moone and Winters or Summers they know diuers of the Starres by name in particular they know the North-star and call it Maske which is to say The Beare Also they haue many names for the Winds They will guesse very well at the wind and weather before hand by obseruations in the Heauens They report also that some of them can cause the wind to blow in what part they lift can raise stormes and tempests which they vsually doe when they intend the death or destruction of other people that by reason of the vnseasonable weather they may take aduantage of their enemies in their houses At such times they performe their greatest exployts and in such seasons when they are at enemitie with any they keepe more carefull watch then at other times As for the language it is verie copious large and difficult as yet wee cannot attaine to any great measure thereof but can vnderstand them and explaine our selues to their vnderstanding by the helpe of those that daily conuerse with vs. And though there be difference in an hundred miles distant of place both in language and manners yet not so much but that they very well vnderstand each other And thus much of their liues and manners In stead of Records and Chronicles they take this course where any remarkeable act is done in memory of it either in the place or by some pathway neere adioyning they make a round hole in the ground about a foot deepe and as much ouer which when others passing by behold they enquire the cause and occasion of the same which being once knowne they are carefull to acquaint all men as occasion serueth therewith And least such holes should bee filled or growne vp by any accident as men passe by they will oft renew the same By which meanes many things of great Antiquitie are fresh in memory So that as a man trauelleth if hee can vnderstand his guide his iourney will be the lesse tedious by reason of many historicall Discourses will be related vnto him For that Continent on which wee are called New-England although it hath euer beene conceiued by the English to bee a part of the maine Land adioyning to Virginia yet by relation of the Indians it should appeare to bee otherwise for they affirme confidently that it is an Iland and that either the Dutch or French passe thorow from Sea to Sea betweene vs and Uirginia and driue a great Trade in the same The name of that Inlet of the Sea they call Mohegon which I take to be the same which wee call Hudsons Riuer vp which Master Hudson went many leagues and for want of meanes as I heare left it vndiscouered For confirmation of this their opinion is thus much Though Virginia bee not aboue an hundred and fiftie leagues from vs yet they neuer heard of Powhatan or knew that any English were planted in his Countrey saue onely by vs and Tisquantum who went into an English Ship thither And therefore it is the more probable because the water is not passable for them who are very aduenturous in their Boates. Then for the temperature of the ayre in almost three yeeres experience I can scarce distinguish New England from Old England in respect of heate and cold frost snow raine winds c. Some obiect because our Plantation lieth in the latitude of two and fortie it must needes bee much â—otter I confesse I cannot giue the reason of the contrary onely experience teacheth vs that if it doe exceed England it is so little as must require better iudgements to discerne it And for the Winter I rather thinke if there be difference it is both sharper and longer in New England then Old and yet the want of those comforts in the one which I haue enioyed in the other may deceiue my iudgement also But in my best obseruation comparing our owne conditions with the Relations of other parts of America I cannot conceiue of any to agree better with the constitution of the English not being oppressed with extremitie of heat nor nipped with biting cold by which meanes blessed be God wee enioy our health notwithstanding those difficulties wee haue vndergone in such a measure as would haue been admired if we had liued in England with the like meanes The day is two houres longer then here when it is at the shortest and as much shorter when it is at the
before me Al these fears which they haue of vs they yet put into the heads of those who came lately to know vs because they should giue vs whatsoeuer they haue for they know that we tooke nothing for our selues but gaue euerie thing to them This was the most obedient people and best conditioned that we found in all that Countrie and commonly they are well disposed Those that were sicke being recouered and restored vnto health and wee hauing continued there three daies the women that we had sent came vnto vs and said that they had found verie few people because they were gone to the kine which was now their time Then we commanded them that were weake to remaine behinde and those that were well to come with vs and that two daies iourney from thence those two women should goe with two of our men to cause the people to come forth to the highwaies to receiue vs. And so the morning following all those that were the lustiest departed with vs and after three daies iourney wee setled our selues and the day following Alonso del Castiglio and Esteuanicco the Negro together with those two women for their guides and that who was their prisoner brought them vnto a Riuer which ranne within a mountaine where a people abode among whom their father was and these were the first houses that wee saw which had the forme and manner of true houses There Castiglio and Esteuanicco arriued and after they had spoken with those Indians at the end of three dayes Castiglio returned to the place where they left vs and brought fiue or sixe of those Indians and said That hee had found houses of people and of artificiall building and that the people eate pulse and gourds and that hee had seene Maiz there There wee abode one day and the next wee departed they bringing vs with them to other built houses where wee did eate of the same food that they eate And after from thenceforth there was another custome that they who knew of our comming came not forth into the high-way to meete vs as the other did but wee found them in their houses and they did nothing else for vs. And they were all sitting and all held their faces towards the wall hanging downe their heads with their haire ouer their eyes and all their clothes were hanged vp aloft in the middle of the house and from thence forward they began to giue vs many mantles of hides and they had not any thing which they gaue vs not It is a Nation of the best and goodliest proportion of bodie that euer wee saw there and of a more liuely spirit and agilitie and that vnderstood vs better and answered vs to whatsoeuer wee demanded them and wee call them The people of the Kine because the greater part of the Kine which dye in those Countries is neere thereabouts and vp that Riuer more then fiftie leagues they goe killing many These people goe all naked after the manner of those whom wee found first The women goe couered with certaine Deere skinnes and so doe some few men also and particularly the aged who are not seruiceable for the warres It is a verie populous Countrey and being demanded why it did not sowe Maiz they said They did it because they would not leese that which they should sowe for two yeeres since their water failed and the seasons was so dry that they all lost the Maiz that they had sowed and that they could not by any meanes be assured to sowe vnlesse first it had rained very much and they prayed vs to speake vnto the Heauens that they might send downe raine they boyle pulse in this manner They fill a great pot halfe full with water and put many of those stones in the fire which will quickely burne and when they seeth them on fire they take them vp with certaine tongs of Wood and cast them into that water in the gourd vntill they make it boyle with that fire of those stones and when they perceiue that the water boyleth they put in that which they haue to boyle and all this time they doe nothing else but take out one stone and put in another fired redde hot to make the water boyle §. IIII. They come to the South Sea and trauell through a plentifull Countrey till they meet with Spaniards whose crueltie and manner of conuerting Sauages is related WE went Westward on our iourny crossed ouer all the land vntil we came forth at the South Sea and the feare wherein they had put vs of the great famine which we were to passe as surely we passed it for seuenteen daies together as they had told vs was not able to diuert vs from our intended purpose Throughout all that Countrey vp the Riuer they gaue vs many Mantles of the hides of Kine and wee did not eate of those their fruites but our sustenance was euery day a piece of the fat of Deere of the bignesse of a mans hand which for this necessitie wee prouided alwaies to haue in a readinesse and so wee passed all those seuenteene daies iourney and at the end of them wee crossed ouer the Riuer and trauelled other seuenteene daies more to the West through certaine plaines and verie great mountaines which are found there and there wee met with a people who the third part of the yeere eate no other thing saue the powder of straw and because wee passed that way at that season of the yeere wee also were constrained to eate it vntill hauing finished those daies iourney wee found setled houses where there was great quantitie of Maiz and of that and Meale they gaue vs enough and Gourds and Pulse and Mantles of Bombasin Cotton withall which we laded them whom wee had hyred there who returned the most contented men in the world Wee yeelded many thankes vnto God who had brought vs thither where we found such plentie of sustenance Among these houses they had some that were of earth and all the rest were of mats and from thence wee passed more then an hundred leagues into the Countrey and alwaies found setled houses and much sustenance of Maiz and Pulse and they gaue vs many Deeres skinnes and Mantles of Bombasin Cotten better then those of New Spaine and gaue vs also many Garlands and certaine Corall which grow in the South Sea and many Turkie stones which come from toward the North. And finally they gaue vs whatsoeuer they had and vnto Dorante they gaue Emeralds made into Arrow heads and with those Arrowes they make their sports and festiuall iollitie seeming to mee very good I demanded of them whence they had them who told me that they brought them from certaine very high mountaines which lye towards the North and that they got them by exchange and barter for quills and Parrats feathers and there were many people there and very great houses Among them wee saw the women more honourably
and honestly vsed then in any other part of India which wee had seene They weare certaine smockes of Bombasin Cotton which reach to the knee and ouer them soft sleeues of certaine folds or plaits of Deere skinnes without haire which touch the ground and they perfume them with certaine roots which make them very fine and so they vse them very well they are open before and tied together with silken strings They goe shod with shooes All this Nation came vnto vs that we should touch and blesse them and they were so importunate herein that they put vs to much trouble because the sicke and the whole would all goe from vs blessed and it often happened that of the women that came with vs some were deliuered and as soone as the children were borne they brought them vnto vs that wee should touch and blesse them They accompanied vs vntill they left vs with another Nation and among all these people they held it for a certaintie that wee came from Heauen because all the things which they haue not and know not whence they come they say that they descend from Heauen For so long time as wee went with them wee trauelled all the day without eating vntill night and wee eate so little that they were astonied to see it They neuer knew vs wearie and surely wee were so accustomed to trauell that we were neuer weary We had great authoritie among them and they held a reuerent opinion of vs and to preserue the the same wee seldome spake vnto them The Negro was the man that alwaies spoke and informed himselfe of the way that wee would goe by the direction of the people that were there and touching euery other thing which we desired to know We passed through diuers languages and our Lord God fauoured vs withall for they alwaies vnderstood vs and we vnderstood them and if we demanded any thing of them by signes they answered vs as if they should haue spoken our language and wee theirs For although we vnderstood six languages we could not thereby preuaile with all because wee found more then a thousand differences of language Throughout all these Countries they who haue warre among themselues became suddenly friends that they might come vnto vs and receiue vs and bring vs whatsoeuer they had Dorante had sixe hundred Deeres hearts giuen him whereupon we called it the people of Hearts Through this Countrey entrie is made into many Prouinces which stand vpon the South Sea and if they that desire to goe thither enter not from hence they are lost because the Coast hath no Maiz so that they are faine to eate the powder of beetes straw and fish which they take in the Sea with floates because they haue no Canowes nor any Boat The women couer their priuities with herbs and straw they are a people of little vnderstanding and miserable We supposed that neere vnto the Coast by the way of those people which way wee went it is more then a thousand leagues of a populous Countrey and that they haue much prouision wherein they liue for they sowe Pulse and Maiz three times in the yeere We saw three sorts of Deere there one as great as the biggest steeres of Castiglia The houses of all those people for habitation are cottages They haue poyson of a certaine kind of tree of the bignesse of an apple tree and they doe no more but gather the fruit and anoint the Arrow therewith and if they haue no fruit they breake of a bough and with a certaine milkie iuyce which it hath they doe the same There are many of these trees that are so poysonous that if the leaues thereof be bruised and cast into any standing poole and not running water all the Deere and whatsoeuer other beast that drinketh thereof suddenly burst asunder Wee abode three daies with these people and about one daies iourny from thence there was another people where such showres of raine came powring downe vpon vs that by reason the Riuer which was there was so growne we could not passe it and so we continued there fifteene daies In this meane time Castiglio saw the buckle of a Spanish girdle about an Indians necke and an Iron key sewed together with it which he tooke from him then we demanded what that thing was and they answered that it came from heauen and questioning further with them who brought them they answered that certaine men brought them which had beards like vnto vs who came from heauen and comming to that riuer with Horses brought Lances and Swords and two of them passed ouer with their Lances Afterward as cunningly as we could we asked them what became of those men so they answered vs that they went to the Sea Wee went through many Countries and found them all dispeopled and not inhabited for the countrie people went their way flying through the mountaines not daring to keepe their houses nor labour for feare of the Christians It greatly discontented vs seeing the Countrie verie fruitfull and exceeding pleasant and full of water and goodly riuers and to see them afterward so solitarie and scorched and the people so feeble and weake fled away and all hid and because they sowed not in so great famine they maintained themselues onely with the barkes of trees and roots Wee had our part of this famine in all this iourney because they could not so well prouide for vs being so euilly hired that it seemed they would all die They brought vs couerings and beades which they had hid for feare of the Christians and gaue them vnto vs and declared how at other times the Christians had entred and passed through that Countrie and had destroied and burned the people and carried halfe the men away and all the women and little children and that such as were able to escape out of their hands fled away Wee seeing them so affrighted that they could not be secured to settle themselues in any place and that they neither would nor could sowe nor labour and manure the Countrie nay they rather determined to suffer themselues to die which seemed better vnto them then to expect to bee so ill intreated with so great crueltie as they had beene vntill that time and they seemed to bee greatly pleased with vs. Notwithstanding wee feared that being come vnto them who were vpon the Frontiers and in warre with the Christians least they would vse vs cruelly and make vs pay for that which the Christians had done vnto them But God being pleased to conduct vs where they were they began to feare and reuerence vs as the former had done and somewhat more whereat we did not a little maruell Whereby it may cleerely appeare that to allure this Nation to become Christians and make them obedient to the Imperiall Maiestie they ought to be gently and curteously vsed and this is the onely and most certaine way of all other They brought