VERITABLE HISTORIE

And description of a country belonging to the wild, naked, savage, man-eating people, situated in the New World, America;

Unknown in the Land of Hesse before and since Christ’s birth, until the two past years, after the day when Hans Stade, from Homberg in Hesse, has, through his own experience, learned them, and now, by means of the press, brings them to light.

DEDICATED TO HIS SERENE HIGHNESS,
The high-born Lord H. Philipsen, Landgrave of Hesse, Count of
Catzenellenbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhain, and Nidda,
his gracious Lord.

WITH A PREFACE
BY
DR. JOH. DRYANDRI, called ZYCHMAN,
Ordinary Professor of Medicine at Marpurg.

To the Serene and Highborn Prince and Lord, the Lord Philipsen, Landgrave in Hesse, Count of Catzenellenbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhain, and Nidda, etc., my gracious Prince and Master.

Mercy and peace in Christ Jesu our Saviour, Gracious Prince and Master! So speaks the holy and kingly prophet David in the hundred and seventh psalm; “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. For He commandeth and ariseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the Heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

“He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
“Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven.
“Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.
“Let them, exalt Him also in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.”

In this manner do I thank the Almighty Creator of Heaven, Earth and Sea, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, for the great mercy and compassion which, among the savage people of the country Brazil, called the Tuppin Imba, who ate men, and whose prisoner I was for nine months, and amidst many other dangers, were through their Holy Trinity quite unexpectedly and wonderfully vouchsafed to me, and that after long misery, peril of life and body, I am again, after past travels and sea voyages, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, my much beloved fatherland, where I dutifully announce myself without delay. Would Your Highness, at your leisure, allow to be read to you this narrative about the by me traversed land and sea, on account of the wonderful deeds that Almighty God vouchsafed me in my distress? That Your Highness may not doubt me, and suppose that I put forward untrue things, I would personally offer you a passport to assist this recital. To God alone be in all Honour and Glory!

And I herewith hasten to express my humble submission.

Dated Wolffhagen, the twentieth day of June,
Anno Domini, Fifteen hundred
and fifty-six.
The born subject of Your Highness Hans
Stade from Homberg in Hesse,
now citizen of Wolffhagen

To the Highborn Lord, the Lord Philipsen, Count of Nassau and Sarprück, etc., his Gracious Prince, sends D. Joh. Dryander much greeting, with offer of his services.

Hans Stade, who now through the press publishes this book and history, has begged me that I will look through his work and writing of these stories previously to printing, correct them, and, if necessary, improve them. To this, his wish, I have from several causes assented. Firstly, I have known this author’s father now for more than fifty years (for he and I were born and brought up in one city, namely, Wetter), and not otherwise the same, at home and in Homberg of Hesse, where he now resides, than as an upright, pious and honest man, who was also learned in good arts. As a well known proverb says, “the apple always tastes of the trunk,” and, as may be expected, Hans Stade, this honest man’s son, is reported to be like his father in virtue and piety.

Moreover, I accept the task of correcting this little book with the more pleasure and satisfaction, inasmuch as I willingly occupy myself with those matters which concern mathematics, such as cosmography, that is, the description and measurement of counties, cities and roads, some of which are in many ways brought forward in this book. I most willingly look into such matters, when I find that any one uprightly and truly reveals and brings to light the things which he has undergone, and I now noways doubt that this Hans Stade writes and makes known an account of his history and travels, not from the statements of other men, but thoroughly and correctly from his own experience without falsehood, the cause being that he therein seeks no glory or worldly fame, but alone God’s honour and praise, and gratitude for favours and deliverances vouchsafed to him. And it is his principal object to make known this history, that all may see how mercifully and against every hope our Lord God has delivered this Hans Stade from out of so much peril, because he called unto Him, and rescuing him from the ferocity of those savage peoples (by whom ho for ten months daily and hourly had to expect that he would be unmercifully struck dead and eaten), again allowed him to return to his beloved fatherland, Hesse.

For this inexpressible mercy of God he would wish, as much as lies in his limited power, to be duly thankful to Him, and for His praise to disclose openly the favours vouchsafed him. And in fulfilling this pleasant task, the order of events leads him to describe the itinerary and the different things that happened during the two years whilst he was out of his own country.

And as he tells his tale in a simple manner, and not with flowery style, or fine words and arguments, this gives me great belief that it is authentic and veritable; nor could he derive any benefit even if he preferred lying to telling the truth.

Besides, he is now settled, together with his parents, in this country; and he is not, as is the usage of rovers and liars, accustomed to vagabondize, gipsy-like, from one country to another. Therefore he must expect, that should other travelled people who have been in the islands arrive here, those would (presently) prove him a liar.

And this is to me a so and argument that his account and the description of this history is truthful, inasmuch as he states the time, country and place where Heliodorus, son of the learned and widely known Eoban of Hesse, who has now been long absent on discovery in foreign lands, and was by us here believed to be dead, was with this Hans Stade in the country of the savages, and saw how pitifully he was captured and led away. This Heliodorus, I say, may sooner or later (as is hoped shall happen) return home, and if Hans Stade’s story be false or lying, he will put him to shame and denounce him as a worthless man.

From these and similar strong arguments and conjectures towards defending and sustaining the truthfulness of Hans Stade, I will now turn aside, and further briefly point out the reasons for which this and similar such-like histories gain but little credence and belief.

Firstly, travellers have, with their unlimited lies and spreading of false and invented stories, brought matters to such a pass, that but little belief is accorded, even to those honest and truthful men who come from foreign lands. Moreover, it has become a general saying: “Whosoever would lie, let him lie about things far off and out of the country,” for nobody will go thither to verify his statements, nay, rather than take this trouble he (the listener) will believe them.

Nothing, however, is gained by discrediting truth on account of lies. Here it is to be noted that though to the commonalty many recounted matters appear impossible, yet when those matters are laid before men of knowledge, and are well weighed, they are found to be correct and consistent, and they also prove themselves so to be.

This observe from one or two examples taken from astronomy. We people who live here in Germany, or near by, know from long experience how long winter and summer, as well as the other two seasons, autumn and spring, endure; therefore how long and how short are the longest day in summer and the shortest day in winter, and through this, also, what the nights are.

Now, for instance, when it is said that there are certain parts of the world where the sun for half a year does not set, and where the longest day with those people is six months, that is half a year long; likewise that places are found in the world, where in one year the “quatuor tempora,” that is, the four seasons, are doubled, therefore that two winters and two summers certainly exist there in one year. Likewise that the sun with all the stars, small as they appear to us here to be, yet that the smallest star in the heavens is larger than the whole earth, and that there are innumerably many of them.

Now when the comman man hears these things, he greatly despises them and he believes them not, and considers them as things which are impossible. Yet these matters are so thoroughly proved by astronomers, that those having knowledge of the science do not doubt them.

Therefore it must not on this account follow, that because the mass consider these things untrue, they are really so; and how badly would the art of astronomers fare, if they could not demonstrate these heavenly bodies, and foretell from certain causes the eclipses, that is, the darkenings of the sun and moon, for fixed days and hours when they shall occur. Yes, men have announced them even some hundred years beforehand, and they have been found by experience to be correct. “Yes,” say they, “who has been in the heavens, and has seen these things, and has measured them?”

Answer: Because daily experience of these things agrees with the demonstration. One must consider them true, even as it is true that if I add together the figures three and two, these will make five.

And from certain reasons and clear proofs in science, it happens that man can measure and calculate how high it is to the moon’s firmament, and from there to all the planets, and, last of all, to the starry heavens. Yea, also the dimensions and size of the sun, the moon, and the other heavenly bodies; and from the study of the heavens, or astronomy, with geometry, we can even calculate how wide, round, broad and long the earth is. Yet these things are unknown to the unlearned man, and are considered by him as unworthy of belief. Ignorance would also be pardonable in the common person, as he has not studied much in philosophy. But that the highly important and the almost learned should doubt those things which are proved true is shameful and also harmful, as the ordinary man looks up to these, and their error being thus confirmed to him, says: “If this were true, then it would not have been contradicted by this or the other writer.” Ergo, etc.

That St. Augustine and Lactantius Firmianus, the two most learned, holy, and well-experienced men, not only in theology, but also in other arts, doubt and will not admit that the antipodes can exist, viz., that men are found who on the opposite side of the earth, and under us, walk with their feet towards us, and therefore have their head and body hanging underneath them and against the heavens, and yet do not fall off, etc. This sounds strange, and yet it is everywhere held by scientific men to be so, and that it cannot be otherwise, and it is found true, however much the holy and highly learned authors mentioned above have denied it. For this must be the positive fact, that those who live ex diametro per centrum terræ must be “antipodes,” and a true proposition is the following: Omne versus cœlum, vergens ubicunque locorum sursum est. And we need not travel to the New World to seek the antipodes, for these antipodes are also here in the upper hemisphere of the globe. For if we compare and place against each other the extreme country of the west, which is Spain and at Finisterre, with the east where India lies, these extreme nations and inhabitants of the earth will almost give a sort of antipodes.

Several pious theologians pretend to prove that the prayer of the mother of the sons of Zebedey (Zebedee) had become true, when she begged the Lord Christ, that of her sons one might sit on his right hand and the other on his left. This, it is said, really so happened, inasmuch as James is supposed to have been burried at Compostela, not far from Finis Terræ (Finisterre), which is commonly called Finstern Stern, and is held in honour. And that the other apostle rests in India, or towards the rising of the sun. That therefore the antipodes have long existed, and that even without considering that at the time of Augustin the new world America, under the earth, had not been discovered, they would yet in this way have existed. Some theologians, and especially Nicolaus Syra (who otherwise is respected as an excellent man), assert that whereas the earth-ball, or the world, for the half part lies and floats on the water, therefore that the hemisphere upon which we live projects above the waters, yet the other part underneath us is in such a manner surrounded by water that no beings can exist there, all which is against the science of cosmography, and has now, moreover, through the many voyages of the Spanish and Portuguese, been found to be far different; that the earth is everywhere inhabited, yea even in the subtorrid zone, which our forefathers and writers never would admit. Our generally used spices, sugar, pearls, and many similar wares, are brought to us from these countries. This paradox of the antipodes and the before mentioned measurement of the heavens, I have purposely brought forward to support the previous argument. Many other things might perhaps be here mentioned if, with my long preface, I wished to be tedious to you.

But many similar arguments will be read in the book written by the worthy and learned Magister Casparus Goldworm, Your Highness’s diligent superintendent at Weilburgh, and Predicant, which book, in six parts, treats of many miracles, wonders and paradoxes, such as in former times and the present have happened, and will shortly be put in print. To that book, and to many others, which describe these things, such as the “Libri Galeotti do rebus vulgo incredibilibus”, I wish to direct the attention of the indulgent reader, if he wishes to know more of these matters.

And may it be herewith sufficiently asserted, that it is not necessarily straightway a lie when something is stated which to the common man appears strange and unusual, as in this history, where all the people in the islands go about naked; and having no domesticated animals for food, and no such things in usage as we have for preserving life, such as clothes, beds, horses, pigs or cows, nor wine or beer, etc., must live and exist in their own way.

In order to make an end to my preface, I will briefly show what induced this Hans Stade to put his two voyages and travels in print. Many may interpret this to his disadvantage, as if he wished hereby to gain glory and to make a transient name. I know him far differently, and I believe truly that his mind is framed in a very different manner, as may also here and there be noticed in his history.

Because, having passed through so much misery, and suffered so much adversity, in which his life was so often in peril, and lie was without hope of being liberated and of ever returning to the home of his parents, yet, God in whom he always trusted, and prayed to, not only delivered him from the hands of his enemies, but was also moved by his faithful prayers to show among the godless men that the veritable and true God, strong and powerful, still existed. It is known that to the prayers of the faithful God never places limit or time, but it here has pleased God, through this Hans Stade, to show his miracles among the godless savages. This I should not know how to gainsay.

It is also known to everyone that troubles, sorrow and sickness, etc., generally so turn men to God, that they in adversity cry to Him more than before. Some hitherto according to popish ways, perhaps pledge themselves to this or the other saint with pilgrimage or penance, so that they may be helped in their distress, and these vows are generally strictly kept, except by those who think to defraud the saints of their vows. Erasmus Roterodamus describes in his Colloquies concerning shipwreck, that one in the ship vowed to St. Christopherus, whose picture in a church at Paris stands some ten yards high, like a great Poliphemus, that if he helped him out of his troubles, he would burn to him a wax taper as large as the saint. His next neighbour, who sat near him, knew of this man’s poverty, and rebuked him for such vow, and said, that even if he sold all his goods on earth, yet could he not bring together wax enough to make so large a taper. Answers him upon this the other, whispering that the saint might not hear it, and said: “When he has saved me from this danger, I will scarcely give him a common farthing candle.”

And the other story of the knight who was in a shipwreck is also similar. This knight when he saw that the vessel was about to sink, called upon St. Nicholas to help him in his need, and that he would offer him his horse or his page. Then his serving man rebuked him, saying, that he should not do thus, whereon would he then ride? quoth the knight to his servant, whispering, that the saint might not hear: “Hold thy peace, when he has helped me out of these straits, I will not give him the tail of my horse.” In such manner thought each of the twain to cheat his saint, and so soon to forget vouchsafed benefits.

Now that this Hans Stade may therefore not, after God has helped him, be considered as one of such who forget mercies, he has determined by this book and description to praise and to glorify God, and from a Christian spirit to make known and to bring to light, wherever he can, the wonders and mercies He has shewn him. And if this was not his intention, (which is honourable and just) he would much rather be spared the trouble and labour, and also save the not small expense which this type and printing have cost him.

As this history has been by the author submissively dedicated to the Serene and Highborn Prince and Lord, the Lord Philipsen, Landgrave of Hesse, Count of Catzenellenbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhain and Nidda, his Prince and gracious Master, and in the name of His Highness has caused this to be published; and has long before been by His Highness our gracious Lord, and in my presence and in that of many others, examined and thoroughly questioned upon all points of his shipwreck and imprisonment, and of which I have often spoken and narrated to Your Highness and to other Lords; and as in Your Highness I have long seen and observed a remarkable lover of such and similar astronomical and cosmographical sciences; so I have desired submissively to write this my preface or introduction to Your Highness, which Your Highness may graciously accept from me, until I shall publish something more weighty in the name of Your Highness.

Commending myself herewith humbly to Your Highness.
Date, Marburg, Day of St. Thomas, year MDLVI.

CONTENTS OF THE BOOK.

I.
Of two voyages completed by Hans Stade in eight and a-half years.
The first voyage was made from Portugal, and the other from Spain to the New World.

II.
How in the country of the wild tribe named Toppinikin (who are subject to the king of Portugal) he was employed as a gunner against the enemy.
Lastly, taken prisoner by the enemy and led away, he was ten and a-half months in danger of being killed and eaten by the enemy.

III.
Also, how God mercifully and miraculously released this prisoner in the before-mentioned year, and how he returned again home to his beloved fatherland.
All given in print for the glory of God and in thankfulness of His kind mercy.

THE CAPTIVITY OF HANS STADE.

CAPUT I.

What helps the watchers in the town,
The mighty ships that plough the main,
If God doth not protect the twain?

I, Hans Stade from Homberg in Hesse, resolving, if it should so please God, to visit India, travelled with that intention from Bremen to Holland, and found in Campon ships which purposed loading salt in Portugal. Thither I sailed with them, and on the 29th day of April, 1547, after sailing on the waters for four weeks, we arrived at a city called Sanct Tuual. Thence I proceeded to Lissebona, which is five miles from Sanct Tuual, In Lissebona I went to an inn, the host of which, a German, was called the young Leuhr; with him I remained some time. This same innkeeper I informed that I had left my country, and asked him when I might succeed in sailing to India. He said that I had delayed too long; and that the king’s ships which sailed to India, had departed. I then begged him as I had missed this voyage, to help me towards another, as he knew the language, and that I would in my turn be of service to him.

He took me to a ship as a gunner. The captain of the vessel was named Pintado, and he intended sailing to Brazil for the purpose of trade, and also he had orders to seize such ships as commerced with the white Moors of Barbary. Also whenever he found French ships trafficking with the savages in Brazil, they were to be taken as prizes. Besides this he was also commanded by the king to conduct to that country certain prisoners who had deserved punishment; these being spared for the purpose of peopling the new countries.

Our ship was well famished with all such warlike contrivances as are used at sea. We were three Germans in her, one named Hans von Bruckhausen, the other Heinrich Brant of Bremen, and I.

CAPUT II.

Description of my first voyage from Lisbon out of Portugal.

We sailed from Lisbon with another small vessel, which also belonged to our captain, and first we arrived at an island called Eilga de Madera, belonging to the king of Portugal; it is inhabited by Portuguese, and is fruitful of vines and sugar. There, at a city named Funtschal we took into the ship more victuals.

Thereafter we sailed from the island towards Barbary, to a city named Cape de Gel, belonging to a white Moor king, named Sehiriffe. This city was formerly occupied by the king of Portugal, but had been taken from him by the said Sehiriffe. It was here that we thought to come upon the above-mentioned ships which were trading with the infidels. We arrived there finding many Castilian fishermen near the shore, and these giving us information that many ships were near the city, we sailed past it, when a ship came well laden out of the harbour. This we pursued and overtook, but the crew escaped us in their boats. Then we perceived an empty boat lying ashore which would serve us well for boarding the captured vessel, so we sailed to it and fetched it.

The white Moors came riding up hard to protect it; but they could not succeed against our guns. We took it and sailed with our booty, which was sugar, almonds, dates, goatskins and gum arabic, with which the ship was well laden, back again to the Eilga de Madera. Thence we despatched our small ships to Lisbon, to report such news to the king, and to learn how to proceed with the said prize, as Valentian and Castilian merchants were among the owners.

We were answered by the king that we were to leave the prize there in the islands, and continue our voyage, meanwhile His Majesty would thoroughly sift the matter.

We acted accordingly, and again sailed to Cape de Gel, to see if we could obtain more prizes. But our undertaking was in vain, and we were prevented by the wind, which near the coast became contrary to us. The night before All Saints’ Day, we sailed from Barbary with a strong gale towards the Brazils. Now when we wore at sea, four hundred miles from Barbary, many fishes came about the ship, these we caught with fishhooks. Of these some which the sailors named albakore, were big, some bonitte, were smaller, and some were called dorado. Also were there many fish as large as herrings which had on both sides wings like a bat, these were much pursued by the big ones; when they perceived these behind them, they raised themselves out of the water in great numbers and flew about two fathoms high above the sea, some of them nearly as far as one could see. Then they again fell into the water. We found them often in the morning lying in the ship, where they had fallen in whilst flying during the night. And they were called in Portuguese language, pisce bolador. Thereafter we came under the equinoctial line, where there was great heat, for the sun stood straight above us, when it was noon; there was no wind for several days, then in the night came oftentimes great thunderstorms with rain and wind, they arose quickly and they subsided as quickly. We had to watch diligently that these should not overtake us when under sail.

But as now winds returned, blowing storms during some days, and against us, we conjectured that if they continued long, we should suffer hunger. We prayed to God for favourable wind. Then it came to pass, one night when we had a great storm and were in great trouble, many blue lights appeared to us in the vessel, of which I had seen none before. Where the waves rolled into the forepart of the ship, there the lights also appeared. The Portuguese said, that the lights were a sign of coming good weather, especially sent by God to cheer us in our peril. We thanked God therefore in a general prayer. Then they disappeared again. And these lights are called Santelmo or Corpus Santon.

Now when the day broke, the weather became fine, and a fair wind arose, so that we visibly saw that such lights must be a miracle of God.

We sailed along through the ocean with good wind; on the 28th day of January (1548), we caught sight of land, part of a cape called Cape de Sanct Angustin. Eight miles therefrom we arrived at the haven named Brannenbucke. And we had been eighty-four days at sea without seeing land. There the Portuguese had established a settlement called Marin. The commander of the place was named Artokoslio; to him we delivered the prisoners, and also discharged sundry goods, which they kept there. We transacted our matters in this harbour, wishing to sail further, where we expected to load.

CAPUT III.

How the savages of the place Prannenbucke had become rebellious,
and wanted to destroy a settlement of the Portuguese.

It so happened that the savages of the place had become rebellious against the Portuguese; they had not been so before, but they now began to be so on account of the Portuguese having enslaved them. We were, therefore, begged for God’s sake, by the governor of the land, to occupy the settlement called Garasu, five miles from the harbour of Marin, where we lay, and which the savages had dared attempt to take. The inhabitants of the settlement Marin could not go to help them, for they conjectured that the savages would also set upon them.

We therefore went to the aid of those in Garasu with forty men from our ship, sailing thither in a small craft. The settlement lay on an arm of the sea, which extended two miles inland. Our force in defence might consist of about ninety Christians. Besides these, were thirty Moors and Brazilian slaves, who belonged to the inhabitants. The savages who besieged us were estimated at eight thousand. We in our beleaguered state had only a palisade of rails around us.

CAPUT IV.

How their fortifications were constructed, and how they fought
against us.

Round about the settlement in which we were beleaguered was a forest, wherein they had made two forts of thick trees, to which they retreated at night, and if we attacked them, there they would remain. Close by they had sunk pits in the ground round the settlements, in which they lay during the day, and out of which they came to skirmish with us. When we fired at them, they all fell down, thinking to duck from the shot. They had besieged us so thoroughly that we could neither move to nor fro; they came close to the settlement, they shot many arrows in the air, intending them to fall and hit us in the settlement; they also shot arrows at us whereon they had tied cotton and wax, and these they ignited, purposing to set fire to the roofs of the houses, and they threatened how they would eat us when they had got us.

We had still a little food, but it soon ran out. For it is in that country the custom to fetch fresh roots every day or every other day, and to make meal or cakes thereof; but we could not get at such roots.

Now when we saw that we had to suffer from want of victuals, we made with two barks for a settlement named Tammaraka to fetch victuals. But the savages had laid large trees over the water-channel, there were many of them on both sides of the shore, intending to prevent our voyage. We broke these again by force and about midway we remained high and dry. The savages could do us no harm in the ships, but they threw much dry wood from their fort between the shore and the ships, thinking to burn it, and they hove their pepper which grows in that country, so as to drive us by the smoke out of the ships. But they did not succeed, and meanwhile the tide returned; we sailed to the settlement Tammaraka, the inhabitants gave us victuals, wherewith we sailed back to the besieged place. They had again thrown obstacles in our passage, they had laid trees as formerly across the channel, and they lay thereby upon the shore; they had all but felled two trees a little from the ground, and at the top they had tied things called Sippo, which grew like hops, but which are thicker. The ends they had made fast in their forts, as it was their intention when we came, and wanted again to break through, to pull the Sippo, that the trees might suddenly break and fall on the ships.

We sailed past, and broke through the first tree: it fell towards their fort, the other fell into the water close behind our small ship. And before we began to burst through the impediments, we called to our companions in the settlement, that they should come to our aid. When we commenced to shout, the savages shouted also, so that our besieged friends might not hear us, for they could not see us on account of a wood which lay between us. But otherwise we were so near them that they might well have heard us, if the savages had not shouted in such manner.

We brought the victuals into the settlement; and when the savages then saw that they could accomplish nothing, they desired peace and again departed. The siege lasted nearly a month, of the savages several remained dead, but of the Christians none.

When we saw that the savages had again become peaceable, we departed once more for our great ship, which lay before Marin; there we took in water, also mandioca meal for food. The commander of the settlement Marin thanked us.

CAPUT V.

How we sailed from Prannenbucke to a country called Buttugaria,
came upon a French ship, and engaged it.

Thence we sailed forty miles off to a harbour, named Buttugaris, where we purposed to load the ship with Brazil wood, and also to pillage some victuals from the savages.

When we arrived there we found a vessel from France, loading Brazil wood, we attacked it, intending to capture it, but they destroyed our mainmast with one shot, and they escaped us: several belonging to our ship were shot dead, while others were wounded.

After this we agreed to return to Portugal, for we could no longer get to wind-ward of the harbour, where we intended to obtain our victual. The wind was against us, we sailed with a small stock of provisions to Portugal, and we suffered great famine, some of us eating goatskins, which we had in the ship. To each of us daily was given one small cup of water, and a little Brazilian root meal (cassava); we were one hundred and eight days on the water, and on the 12th of August we came to some islands, called Losa Sores, belonging to the king of Portugal. At that place we anchored, rested and fished, and there we saw a ship at sea, to which we sailed to learn what ship it was. It proved to be a pirate, and prepared to resist us, but we gained the upper hand and took the vessel from them, they escaping from us in the boat to the islands. The ship contained much wine and bread, wherewith we refreshed ourselves.

Hereafter we encountered five ships, belonging to the king of Portugal, which were to await at the islands the arrival of the ships from India, to convoy them to Portugal. We remained with them; and helped to pilot an Indiaman, which arrived at an island called Tercera, and there we remained. Many ships, which had all come from the new countries, some bound for Spain, others for Portugal, had met at the island. We sailed from Tercera nearly one hundred vessels in company, and arrived at Lisbon about the eighth day of October, 1548, having been sixteen months on the voyage.

After this I rested some time in Lisbon, determined to sail with the Spaniards to the new countries which they occupy. I sailed with that intention from Lisbon in an English ship to Castile, to a city called Porta Sancta Maria. There they purposed loading the ship with wine, and thence I travelled to a city called Civilien, where I found three ships fitting out, to sail to a country called Rio de Platta, in America. This region with the rich gold-country named Pirau, which was discovered some years ago, and Brazil, all form one continent.

To conquer this land forthwith, several ships had been sent some years before, and one of them returning (home) requested more assistance, saying how rich it was in gold. The commander of the three ships was named Dohn Diego de Senabrie, he was on the part of the king to become governor of the country. I repaired to one of the ships, which were well equipped; and we sailed from Civilien to Sanct Lucas, where the Civilien river enters the sea, there we lay awaiting a favourable wind.

CAPUT VI.

Description of ray other voyage from Civilien, in Spain, to America.

Anno Domini 1549, the fourth day after Easter, we sailed out of Sanct Lucas, and the wind being against us, we took refuge at Lisbon. When the wind became favourable we sailed to the Canary Isles, and anchored at an island called Pallama, where we took in some wine for the voyage. There also the pilots of the vessels agreed, in case we were separated at sea, upon which part of the land they would meet again, namely in twenty-eight degrees on the south side of the equinoctial line.

From Palma we sailed to Cape Virde, that is, the green headland, which lies in the land of the black Moors. There we had nearly suffered shipwreck. From that place we sailed our course, the wind was against us, beat us several times back upon the coast of Gene, where the black Moors also dwell. Thereafter we arrived at an island, called S. Thomé, belonging to the king of Portugal; it is an island rich in sugar, but unhealthy. In it live Portuguese with many black Moors, who are their slaves. Having taken in fresh water at the island, we sailed further. In a storm at night, we had lost sight of our two companion ships, so that we sailed alone. The winds were much against us, for they have the peculiarity in that sea, that when the sun is on the north side of the equinoctial line, they blow from the south. In the same manner when the sun is on the south side, they come from the north, and they are wont to blow stiffly during five months from one quarter. They prevented us for four months from sailing our proper course. Then when the month of September arrived, the winds began to be northerly, and we directed our coarse south-south-west towards America.

CAPUT VII.

How, in twenty-eight degrees latitude, we arrived at the Continent of
America, and could not make out the harbour, whither we had
been directed; and how a great storm arose on the coast.

Thereupon it happened that one day, which was the eighteenth November, the steersman took the sun’s height, and found that we were in latitude twenty-eight degrees: we then sought land to the west. Thereafter on the twenty-fourth of the said month we saw land. We had been six months at sea, and had often been exposed to great danger. Now as we came hard by the coast we knew not the harbour, and could not find the mark which the head steersman had given us. Also we hardly dared enter unknown harbours, and therefore we tacked up and down the coast. It began to blow hard, till fearing that nothing would save us from perishing on the rocks, we lashed several barrels together, put powder therein, stopped up the bung-holes, tied our weapons upon them, so that if we suffered shipwreck, and any of ours escaped therefrom they might find their weapons on land, as the waves would throw the barrels on shore. We then tacked with the intention of sailing away from the land again, but it availed us not, the wind drove us upon the rocks which lay hidden in the water at a depth of about four fathoms, and we were obliged on account of the great waves to sail right on to the shore, thinking that nothing could save all from perishing together.

But God ordained that, as we came close upon the rocks, one of our companions saw a haven into which we sailed.

There we saw a small ship which had escaped before us, and had sailed behind an island, so that we could not see it, and could not know what ship it was. We did not follow it further, but we lowered our anchor, and praised God that he had helped us out of our peril, rested and dried our clothes.

It was about two o’clock in the afternoon, when we anchored: and towards evening there arrived a large boat full of savages alongside of our ship, and desired to speak with us. But none of ours could well understand the language; we gave them some knives and fishhooks after which they again sailed away. The same night another boatful came, and among them were two Portuguese who asked us whence we came. We then told them that we were from Spain, they said that we must have a skilful pilot to have so entered the harbour, for they knew the harbour well, but that with such a storm as that with which we had entered, they knew not how to make it. Then we told them all the circumstances, how the wind and waves would have brought us to a shipwreck. How whilst we were expecting nothing else, than that we should perish, we had suddenly sighted the harbour, and that therefore God had helped us unexpectedly, and had saved us from shipwreck, and also that we knew not where we were.

When they heard this they marvelled and thanked God, and told us that the harbour in which we were was called Supraway, and that we were about eighteen miles away from an island called Sancte Vincente, belonging to the king of Portugal, and that they lived there, and those whom we had seen in the small ship had made off, because they had thought that we were Frenchmen.

We also asked of them, how far from there was the island of Sancte Catharina, for that we were bound thither. They said it might be about thirty miles (leagues) to the south, and that there was a nation of savages there called Carios, of whom we should be well on our guard, and they said: The savages of this harbour were called the Tuppin Ikins and were their friends, from them we had nothing to fear.

We inquired in what latitude this said land lay, they told us, in twenty-eight degrees, which is correct. They also gave us indications by which we could recognize the land.

CAPUT VIII.

How we then again sailed out of the harbor, in search of the country
to which we were bound

Now when the east-south-easterly gale had subsided, the weather became fine, and when the wind blew from the north-east, we got under sail, and went back again to the before-mentioned country. We sailed for two days seeking the haven without being able to make it out. But we perceived by the shore, for the sun was so darkened that we could not take our observations, that we must have sailed past the harbour. We could not return on account of the wind, which opposed us.

But God is a helper in need. As we were at our evening prayers, begging for His mercy, it so happened, before it became night, that dull clouds arose in the south, whither the wind was driving us. Before we had ended our prayers, the north-easterly wind fell and blew so that it could hardly be felt. Then the south wind, which does not often prevail at that season of the year, began to blow, with such thunder and lightning as to cause us fear, and the sea became very rough, for the south wind met the waves of the north wind. It was also so dark that we could not see, and the fierce thunder and lightning made the crew waver, till no one knew where he should lend a hand to shift the sails. We therefore expected that we should all be drowned that night. God, however, caused the weather to change and to improve, and we sailed back to the place whence we had that day come, and again we sought the harbour. Yet we could not find it, for there were many islands near the mainland.

Now when we again arrived at twenty-eight degrees (of south) latitude the captain ordered the pilot to steer us in among the islands, and to let go an anchor, in order to see what country it was. Then we sailed in between two coasts, where we found a fine port; then we anchored, and resolved to set out in the boat that we might further reconnoitre the harbour.

CAPUT IX.

How some of us sailed with the boat to examine the harbour, and found
a crucifix standing on a rock.

And it was on Saint Catharine’s Day, in the year 1549, that we lowered our anchor, and some of us, well armed, sailed off in the boat further to examine the harbour. We came to think that it must be a river, which is called Rio de S. Francisco, which lies in the same province, for the further we went up it, the longer the river appeared. And we now looked around again and again, to see if we could perceive any smoke, but we saw none. Then we thought that we sighted some huts near a wilderness, and in a ravine. We sailed thither, but they were old huts, and we perceived no men therein; so we went further, till it became evening, and there lay before us in the river a small island, for which we made, in order to pass the night, supposing that there we could best protect ourselves. When we came to the island it was already night, and we could scarcely venture to repair on shore to spend the night there. Some of us went round about the island to see if anybody was in it, but we perceived no one. Then we made a fire, and cut down a palm-tree, and ate the pith of it. There we passed the night, and early in the morning we sailed further into the country, for our intention was to discover if there were people there, inasmuch as when we had seen the old huts, we thought the land must be inhabited. Now as we so sailed onwards, we saw from afar a piece of wood standing upon a rock, which seemed like a cross. Several of us thought, who could have placed it there? We passed it, and found it was a large wooden cross, secured with stones to the rook, and to it was tied a piece of the bottom of a barrel, upon which letters were cut. But we could not easily read them, and we wondered what ships those could have been that had erected it there, still not knowing whether this was the harbour where we were to meet.

Thereupon, we again sailed further in from the cross, to seek other land further on: the bottom of the barrel we took with us. As we so sailed along, one of us sat down, and reading the letters on the bottom of the barrel, began to understand them. The following was carved thereon in the Spanish language: Si vehn por ventura, eckila armada desu majestet, Tiren uhn Tire ay Averan Recado.

That is to say in German: “If peradventure any of His Majesty’s ships should come here, they may fire a gun, when they will receive further information.”

And we sailed forthwith back to the cross, and fired off a falconet, and proceeded to sail further into the country.

As we so advanced, we sighted five canoes full of savages, that came rowing straight down upon us, our guns being in readiness. Now when they came near us, we saw a man who wore clothes and had a beard. He stood in the forepart of the canoe, and we perceived that he was a Christian. Then we called upon him to stop, and to come in a canoe for parley with us.

When he drew near in such a manner, we asked him in what country we were, and he answered, “You are in the harbour of Schirmirein, so called in the savage tongue.” Moreover he said, “that you may therefore know it, it is called St. Catherine’s harbour, which name has been given to it by the first discoverers.”

Then we were glad, for that was the harbour which we sought, and in which we were although we had not known it, also we had arrived there on St. Catherine’s Day. Know ye hereby how God helps and saves those who are in trouble, and who call earnestly to Him.

Then he asked us whence we came. We said that we were the king’s ships from Spain, and we purposed sailing to the Rio do Platta, also that there were more ships on the way, and we hoped (if it pleased God) that they would also soon arrive, for here we intended to meet. Then he declared himself well pleased and thanked God, for he had three years previously been in the province of Rio de Platta and had been sent from the place called La Soncion, held by the Spaniards, down to the coast, which is some three hundred miles journey, in order to induce the tribe known as Carios, and who are friends of the Spaniards, to plant roots called mandioca, so that the ships might there again (if it happened that they were in want) obtain provisions from the savages. Such had been the orders of the captain who took the last news to Spain; he was named Capitan Salaser, and had also returned with the next ship.

We sailed with them to the huts where he (the Portuguese) lived among the savages, and the latter entertained us after their manner.

CAPUT X.

How I was sent with a boat full of savages to our large ship.

Thereupon our captain begged the man whom we found among the savages, that he would cause a canoe to be manned, which should be conducted by one of us to the great ship, so that this also might proceed there.

Then the captain sent me off with the savages to the ship; we had been absent three nights, and those in the ship did not know what had become of us. Now when I fired an arquebuss from the boat, on approaching the vessel, they made a great alarm and prepared for defence, and would not permit me to approach nearer with the boat, but called out to me, asking what had happened, where the rest of the crew remained, and how I so came alone with the boat-full of savages. I remained silent and gave no answer, for the captain had commanded me to look sorrowful, in order to observe what those in the ship would do.

Now as I answered them not, they said among themselves, “the affair is not altogether right, the others must be dead, and they come with this one; perhaps they have others in the rear with whom to seize the vessel,” And they were about to fire. Yet they called out once more to me, then I began to laugh, and said, “Be comforted, good news! let me come nearer so that I may give you account of it.” Upon this I told them how matters stood; at which they were exceedingly glad, and the savages sailed home again in their boat. We arrived with the great ship close to where the savages dwelt, when we let go an anchor, lay there and waited for the other vessels which had parted from us in the storm, and which had yet to arrive.

And the village where the savages live is called Acuttia, and the man whom we there found was called Johann Ferdinando, a Buschkeyner from the town of Bilka, and the savages who were there were called the Carios. The latter brought us much venison and fish, for which we gave them fish-hooks.

CAPUT XI.

How the other ship of our fleet, in which the head pilot was, and of
which we had lost eight at sea, arrived.

After we had been there about three weeks, arrived the ship in which the head pilot was. But the third vessel had perished and of it we heard nothing more.

We again prepared to sail on; having collected six months’ victual, for we had still some 300 miles to proceed by water. When we had all things ready, we one day lost the great ship in the harbour, so that the voyage was in such manner prevented.

We lay there during two years running great danger in the wilderness, and we suffered great hunger, having to eat lizards, field-rats, and other strange animals such as we could procure, also the shell-fish which hung to the rocks, and similar unusual food. The savages who at first brought us provisions enough, when they had obtained sufficient wares, withdrew from us for the most part to other places: we also dared not rely entirely upon them, so that it grieved us to remain there and perish.

We therefore agreed that the greater part should travel overland to the province called La Sumption, which was three hundred miles off. The others were to proceed thither with the remaining ship. The captain kept several of us by him, who were to proceed with him by water. Those who went by land carried provisions with them for their march through the wilderness, and taking some savages they set forth. But many perished with hunger, and the others arrived at their destination, as we afterwards learned: as to the rest of us, our craft was too small to put to sea with.

CAPUT XII.

How we agreed to sail to Sanct Vincente, where the Portuguese possess
the land, intending to freight another ship from them wherewith to
end our voyage, and how we suffered shipwreck in a great storm,
not knowing how far we were from Sanct Vincente.

Now the Portuguese have taken possession of an island close to the mainland called S. Vincente (in the savage tongue Urbioneme). This same province lies about seventy miles (leagues) distant from the place where we were. Thither it was our intention to sail and to see whether we could freight from the Portuguese a ship in which to make the Rio de Plata, for a craft such as that still left us was too small for all of us to sail therein. To seek information about this, some of us sailed with the captain named Salasar to the Island S. Vincente, and none of us had been there, except one called Roman, who thought that he could find out the place again.

We sailed out of the harbour called Inbiassape, which lies in thirty-four degrees south of the equinoctial line, and we came after sailing about two days to an island called Insula de Alkatrases, about 40 miles (leagues) away from whence we sailed. Then the wind became unfavourable, so that we were obliged to anchor. On the said island were many seabirds, which are called Alkatrases, these are easy to catch, and it was at the time they rear their young. There we landed and sought fresh water in the island, and found still there some old huts, and fragments of pottery of the savages who had formerly lived in the island, and we came upon a small fountain on a rock. Then we struck dead many of the above-mentioned birds, and also taking their eggs with us to the ship, we cooked the birds and the eggs. Now when we had eaten, a great storm arose in the south, so that we could scarcely retain our anchor, and feared greatly that the wind would cast us up on to the rocks. Already it was almost evening, and we still hoped to enter a harbour called Caninee.

But before we got there it was night, and we could not enter, but sailed away from the land in great danger, thinking not otherwise but that the breakers would beat the ship to pieces, for it was near a promontory of land, where the waves are still larger than in the midst of the sea far from land.

And we had during the night got so far away from land, that in the morning we could not see it. But after some time we again sighted the land, and the storm was so heavy that we could hardly maintain ourselves longer, when he who had been into the country, camo to the conclusion, as he saw the land, that it was Sanct Vincente, and we sailed there, but we found it so covered with fog and clouds that we could not recognize it. We were obliged to heave into the sea everything of very heavy weight, in order to make the ship lighter, and because of the large waves we were in great fear. Still we sailed on, expecting to find the harbour in which the Portuguese lived. But we were mistaken.

Now when the clouds had broken a little, so that the land could be seen, Roman said that he thought the harbour was before us and that we were to steer straight to a rock, behind which lay the harbour. We sailed to it, and as we came close upon it, we saw nothing but death before our eyes, for it was not the harbour, and we were obliged to sail straight upon the land on account of the wind, and to suffer shipwreck. The waves dashed against the shore, causing horror. Then we prayed to God for mercy and salvation for our souls, and did as beseems seafaring men, who are about to be shipwrecked.

As we came where the waves broke upon the coast, we rose so high on the waters that we looked down upon a steep as from a wall. The first shock with which the ship went aground, broke her to pieces. Then several sprang out and swam at once for the land, some of us arrived on shore upon the fragments. In such manner God helped us all, one with another, alive on the coast, and it blew and rained so hard that we were truly cast away.

CAPUT XIII.

How we discovered in what country of the savages we had suffered
shipwreck.

Now when we had reached the shore, we thanked God that he bad permitted us to reach land alive, and yet we were also sad, for we knew not where we might be, inasmuch as Roman did neither quite recognize the country, nor could tell whether we were far from or near to the Island of S. Vincente, also whether savage men dwelt there, from whom we might suffer harm, And it happened that one of our companions named Claudio (who was a Frenchman) ran along the strand in order to get warm, and saw behind the forests a village, the houses of which were built in the Christian manner. Thither going he found it to be a settlement wherein Portuguese live, and known by the name Itenge Ehm, situated two miles (leagues) from Sanct Vincente. Then he told them how we had been shipwrecked there, and that the crew suffered much from cold and that we knew not whither to go. When they heard this, they came running out, and took us with them to their houses, and clad us. There we remained several days until we had recovered ourselves.

Thence we travelled overland to Sanct Vincente, where the Portuguese did us all honour, and gave us food for some time. After this each one began something by which to maintain himself. As we there saw that all our vessels had been lost, the captain sent a Portuguese ship after the rest of our crew, who had remained at Byasape, in order to bring them, which also happened.

CAPUT XIV.

How Sancte Vincente is situated.

Sancte Vincente is an island, which lies close to the mainland, therein are two hamlets. One is called in the Portuguese language S. Vincente, but in the savage tongue Orbioneme, the other lies about two miles therefrom, and is called Uwawa Supe. Besides these there are also in the islands sundry houses called Ingenio, and in these sugar is made.

And the Portuguese who live therein have for allies a tribe of Brazilians who are called the Tuppin Ikin, and the territory of this nation extends some eighty miles inwards, and about forty miles along the sea-coast.

This tribe has on both sides enemies, on the south side and also on the north side. Their foes on the south side are called the Carios, and those on the north side are known as the Tuppin Imba, They are also called by their enemies Tawaijar, as much as to say, enemy; these have done much injury to the Portuguese who to this day remain in fear of them.

CAPUT XV.

How the place is named from which they suffer most persecution of the
enemy, and how it is situated.

Five miles from Sancte Vincente lies a place called Brikioka, to which place their enemies the savages first arrive, and sail through between an island called Sanct Maro, and the mainland.

To intercept the passage of the savages several Mammeluck brethren were stationed there. Their father was a Portuguese, and their mother was a Brazilian woman, the same were Christians, skilled and experienced in customs and languages both of the Christians and the savages. The eldest was called Johan de Praga, the other Diego de Praga, the third Domingus de Praga, the fourth Francisco de Praga, the fifth Andreas de Praga, and their father was called Diago (Diego) de Prage.

The five brothers had, about two years before I arrived, undertaken together with the friendly Indian people, to build a fort there against their enemies, according to the customs of the savages: this they had also so carried out.

Consequently several Portuguese had joined them, and had settled there, as it was a fine country. This their enemies the Tuppin Imba had discovered, and had prepared themselves in their country, which begins about twenty-five miles (leagues) off. They had arrived there one night with seventy canoes, and had attacked them at daybreak as is their custom. The Mammalucks together with the Portuguese had run into a house, which they had built of earth, and defended themselves. The other savages had also kept together in their huts and defended themselves whilst they could, so that many of the enemies had remained dead. At last, however, the foe had gained the upper hand, had set fire to the place of Brikioka, and had captured all the savages, but to the Christians of whom there might have been about eight, and the Mammelucks in the house, they had not been able to do any harm, for God intended to preserve them. The other savages, however, whom they had taken there, they had at once separated and divided, and thereupon they had returned to their own country.

CAPUT XVI.

How the Portuguese rebuilt Brikioka, and afterwards raised a fort in
the island of Sanct Maro.

Upon which the authorities and community thought it advisable that the said place should not be abandoned, but that it should be strongly fortified, for at that point the whole country could be defended. This they had done.

Now when the enemies perceived that the Brikioka settlement was too strong for them to attack, they during the night passed by water immediately above the place, and captured whomever they could seize about Sanct Vincente. For those who lived in the interior thought they were in no danger, as the neighboring settlement had been built up and fortified, and for this very reason they suffered harm.

Thereafter the inhabitants thought well to build a house close to the water, on the Island of Sanct Maro, which lies immediately opposite Brikioka, and to place therein guns and men, in order to prevent the passage of the savages. Thus they had begun to build a bulwark on the island, but they had not finished it, the cause being, as they informed me, that no Portuguese gunner would venture to remain therein.

I went there to see the place. Now when the inhabitants heard that I was a German and knew something about gunnery, they begged me to remain in the house on the island, and there help to watch the enemy. They offered to procure me other companions, and to give me good pay. Also they said, that if I did this, I should be rewarded by the king, for the king was wont to be a particularly gracious master to those who in such new countries give their aid and advice.

I agreed with them that I should serve in the fort four months, when an officer on the part of the king would arrive there in ships, and build up a stone blockhouse, which would then be stronger, as it also came to pass. During most of the time I was in the blockhouse with three others, having some guns with me, but I was in great danger on account of the savages, for the house was not strong, we had also to keep watch diligently, that the savages might not pass by secretly during the night, as they several times attempted, yet God helped us to perceive them during our watches.

Several months afterwards came the officer of the king, for the community had written to the king how great was the insolence displayed by the enemies to the country from the before-named side. Also (they reported) how fine a country it was, and that it was not advisable to abandon it. In order to amend this, the Colonel, called Thome de Susse, came and examined that part of the country, and the points which the community desired greatly to have fortified.

Then the community informed the officer of the services which I had rendered them, by repairing to the house when no Portuguese would venture therein, as it was so badly fortified.

This pleased him greatly, and he said that he would bring my conduct before the king, if God helped him back again to Portugal, and that I should be rewarded.

The time which I had agreed to serve the community, namely four mouths, was past, and I asked leave. But the officer together with the community desired that I would remain some time longer in the service. Whereupon I gave my assent to serve two years more, and when the time was over they should, unless certain circumstances prevented it, allow me to sail in the first ship which I could find, to Portugal, when my services should be rewarded. To this effect the officer gave me on the part of the king my “privilegea” (commission), as it is also customary to give to such of the king’s gunners who demanded it. They built the stone-fort and they placed several pieces of cannon inside. I was commanded to keep vigilant watch and look out in the fort with the guns.

CAPUT XVII.

How and from what cause we had to expect the enemy more at one time
of the year than at another.

We had, however, to he especially on our guard more than usual against them, during two seasons, particularly when they proposed invading with violence their enemies’ country. And these two periods are, the one in the month of November when a fruit becomes ripe, which is called in their language Abbati, from which they make drink called Kaawy. Therewith they have also the Mandioka root, of which they also mix up some in order to make the drink when the Abati is ripe. Returning from war they would have some of the Abati for brewing the drinks with which to eat their enemies, when they have caught any, and to rejoice a whole year thereat when the Abati time (again) comes.

We had also to expect them in August, when they go in search of a certain kind of fish which passes from the ocean into such fresh waters as flow into the sea, in order to lay its spawn therein. The same are called in their language Bratti, the Spaniards call them Lysses. About the same period they are accustomed to sally forth together and make war, in order that their expedition may be better assisted by supplies of food. And of these fish they catch many with small nets, also they shoot them with arrows; they take home with them many fried, and they also make therefrom a flour which they call Pira Kui.

CAPUT XVIII.

How I was captured by the savages, and the way in which this
happened.

I had a savage man, of a tribe called Carios; he was my slave, who caught game for me, and with him I also went occasionally into the forest.

Now it happened once upon a time, that a Spaniard from the island of Sancte Vincente came to me in the island of Sancte Maro, which is five miles (leagues) therefrom, and remained in the fort wherein I lived, and also a German by name Heliodorus from Hesse, son of the late Eoban of Hesse, the same who was in the island of Sanct Vincente at an ingenio, where sugar is made, and the ingenio belonged to a Genoese named Josepe Ornio. This Heliodorus was the clerk and manager of the merchants to whom the ingenio belonged. (Ingenio, are called houses in which sugar is made). With the said Heliodorus I had before had some acquaintance, for when I was shipwrecked with the Spaniards in that country, I found him in the island of Sancte Vincente, and he showed me friendship. He came again to me, wanting to see how I got on, for he had perhaps heard that I was sick.

Having sent my slave the day before into the wood to catch game, I purposed going the next day to fetch it, so that we might have something to eat. For in that country one has little else beyond what comes from the forests.

Now as I with this purpose walked through the woods, there arose on both sides of the path loud yells such as the savages are accustomed to make, and they came running towards me; I knew them, and found that they had all surrounded me, and levelling their bows with arrows, they shot in upon me. Then I cried, “Now God help my soul;” I had scarcely finished saying these words when they struck me to the ground and shot (arrows) and stabbed at me. So far they had not (thank God!) wounded me further than in one leg, and torn my clothes off my body; one the jerkin, the other the hat, the third the shirt and so forth. Then they began to quarrel about me, one said he was the first who came up to me, the other said that he had captured me. Meanwhile the others struck me with their bows. But at last two of them raised me from the ground where I lay naked, one took me by one arm, another by the other, and some went behind me, and others before. They ran in this manner quickly with me through the wood towards the sea, where they had their canoes. When they had taken me to the shore, I sighted their canoes which they had drawn up from the sea on to the land under a hedge, at the distance of a stone’s-throw or two, and also a great number more of them who had remained with the canoes. When they, ornamented with feathers according to their custom, saw me being led along they ran towards me, and pretended to bite into their arms, and threatened as though they would eat me. And a king paraded before me with a club wherewith they despatched the prisoners. He harangued and said how they had captured me their slave from the Perot (so they call the Portuguese), and they would now thoroughly revenge on me the death of their friends. And when they brought me to the canoes, several of them struck me with their fists. Then they made haste among one another, to shove their canoes back into the water, for they feared that an alarm would be made at Brikioka, as also happened.

Now before they launched the canoes, they tied my hands together, and not being all from the same dwelling-place, those of each village were loath to go home empty-handed, and disputed with those who held me. Some said that they been just as near me as the others, and that they would also have their share of me, and they wanted to kill me at once on that very spot.

Then I stood and prayed, looking round for the blow. But at last the king, who desired to keep me, began and said they would take me living homewards, so that their wives might also see me alive, and make their feast upon me. For they purposed killing me “Kawewi Pepicke,” that is, they would brew drinks and assemble together, to make a feast, and then they would eat me among them. At these words they left off disputing, and tied four ropes round my neck, and I had to get into a canoe, whilst they still stood on the shore, and bound the ends of the ropes to the boats and pushed them off into the sea, in order to sail

CAPUT XIX.

How, when they were sailing back again with me our people arrived,
purposing to retake me from them, and they turned and faced them
and skrimished with them.

There lies a small island close to the island where I had been captured, in which rest certain water-birds called Uwara, having red feathers. They asked me if their enemies the Tuppin Ikins had that year also been there, and had caught the birds with their young. I said “Yes,” but they nevertheless determined to see for themselves. For they esteem greatly the feathers which come from the birds, almost all their ornaments being made of feathers. And a peculiarity of the said birds Uwara is that when they are young, the first feathers which they grow are whitish grey; the next however, when they become fledged, are of a blackish grey, with these they fly about a year, after which they become as red as any red paint. And they sailed to the island, expecting to find the birds. Now when they had proceeded about the distance of two musket-shots from the spot where their canoes had been, they looked back, when it was seen crowded by the Tuppin Ikin savages, also some Portuguese among them, for a slave who was following me when I was captured, escaped them and raised an alarm as they took me. These intended to release me and called out to my captors, that if they were brave they would come to them and fight. And they turned back with the canoes again to those on shore, and these shot with blowpipes and arrows upon us, and those in the boats back again to them; and they untied my hands once more, but the ropes round my neck still remained firmly bound.

Now the king in the boat, in which I was, had a gun and a little powder, which a Frenchman had bartered to him for Brazil wood. This I was compelled to fire off at those on shore.

“When they had so fought for some time, they feared that the others might perhaps be reinforced by boats and pursue them; and they sailed away, after three of them had been shot. They went about the distance of a falconet-shot past the bulwark of Brikioka, wherein I used to be, and as we so passed, I was obliged to stand up in the boat that my companions might see me, and they from the fort fired at us two large guns, but their shot fell short.

Meanwhile several canoes from Brikioka came sailing after us, and thought to overtake us, but they paddled away too quickly. When my friends saw this and that they could effect nothing, they again made for Brikioka.

CAPUT XX.

What happened on the return voyage to their country.

Now when they were about seven miles (leagues) away from Brikioka towards their own country, it was, reckoning by the sun, about four o’clock in the afternoon, and it was on this same day that they had captured me.

And they sailed to an island and drew their canoes on shore, and intending to remain there the night, they took me from out of the canoe on to the shore. When I got on land I could not see, for I had been struck under my eyes; also I could not walk well, and had to remain lying on the sand on account of the wounds which I had received in my leg. They stood around me and threatened how they would eat me.

Now when I was in such great terror and misery, I thought over what I never before contemplated, namely the sad vale of sorrow wherein we here live, and I began with tearful eyes to sing from the depth of my heart the Psalm:

“Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee,” etc.

Then said the savages, “Hear how he cries, how he laments!”

Thereupon it seemed to them that there was no good encampment to be made on the island, for the purpose of remaining there passing the night, and they sailed away again to the mainland, whereon were huts, built at a former time. It was night when we arrived there, and they drew the canoes ashore, and made a fire, and then led me to it. There I had to sleep in a net which in their language they call Inni, which are their beds, and are tied to two posts above the ground, or if they are in a forest they make it fast to two trees. The ropes which I had round my neck, they lashed to a tree above, and they lay during the night round about me, mocking me and calling me in their language, “Schere iabau ende”, Thou art my bound beast.

Before the dawn broke they put off again, and rowed the whole day, and when the position of the sun indicated about vesper time, they were yet two miles (leagues) from the place where they purposed encamping for the night. Then a great black cloud arose and came behind us, of terrible aspect, and they rowed quickly, that they might reach land and escape the clouds and wind.

Now when they saw that they could not escape them they said to me, “Ne mungitta dee. Tuppan do Quabo, amanasu y an dee Imme Ranni me sis se.” That is as much as to say, “speak with thy God, so that the great rain and wind may do us no harm.” I remained silent and made my prayer to God, as they demanded it from me, and said: “O Thou Almighty God, Thou heavenly and earthly Lord, who from the beginning hast helped and hast heard those who among the godless call upon Thy name, vouchsafe me Thy mercy, so that I may perceive that Thou art still with me, and that the savage heathens may see, that Thou my God hast heard my prayer!”

I lay bound in the canoe so that I could not turn round to see the weather, but they looked constantly behind them beginning to say, “Oqua moa amanasu.” That is; “The great tempest passeth away.” Then I raised myself a little and looking back, saw that the great cloud passed off, upon which I thanked God.

Now when we came to land, they did with me as they had done previously. They tied me to a tree, and they lay around me during the night, saying that we were now near their country, and that we would arrive there against the evening of the following day – whereat I did not much rejoice.

CAPUT XXI.

How they behaved to me on the day when they brought me to their
habitations.

On that same day about vesper time, reckoning by the sun, we beheld their habitations, having therefore been three days on the return voyage. For the place I was led to was thirty miles (leagues) distant from Brikioka.

Now when we arrived close to their dwellings, these proved to be a village which had seven huts, and they called it Uwattibi. We ran up on a beach which borders the sea, and close to it were their women in the plantations of the root which they call Mandioka. In this said plantation walked many of their women pulling up the roots; to these I was made to call out in their language: “A junesche been ermi vramme,” that is: “I, your food, have come.”

Now when we landed, all young and old ran out of their huts (which lay on a hill), to look at me. And the men with their bows and arrows entered their huts, and left me in the custody of their women, who took me between them and went along, some before me and others behind, singing and dancing in unison, with the songs which they are accustomed to sing to their own people when they are about to eat them.

Now they brought me before the Iwara huts, that is the fort which they make round about their huts with great long rails, like the fence of a garden. This they do on account of their enemies.

As I entered, the women ran to me, and struck me with their fists, and pulled my beard, and spoke in their language: “Sche innamme pepicke a e.” That is as much as to say: “with this blow I revenge my friend, him whom those among whom thou hast been, have killed.”

Thereupon they led me into the huts, where I had to lie in a hammock, whilst the women came and struck and pulled me before and behind, and threatened me how they would eat me.

And the men were together in a hut, and drank the beverage which they call Kawi, and had with them their gods, called Tammerka, and they sang in praise of them, for their having so well prophesied that I should be captured by them.

This song I heard, and for half an hour none of the men came near me, but only women and children.

CAPUT XXII.

How my two masters came to me and told me that they had presented
me to one of their friends, who was to keep me and kill me, when
I was to be eaten.

I knew not then their customs so well as I have since learned them, and I thought “Now they prepare to kill thee.” After a little while those who had captured me, named Jeppipo (Yeppipo) Wasu, and his brother Alkindar Miri, came to me and told me how they had, from friendship, presented me to their father’s brother Ipperu Wasu, who was to keep me, and also to kill me, when I was to be eaten, and thus to gain a new name with me.

For this same Ipperu Wasn had a year before also captured a slave, and had as a sign of friendship presented him to Alkindar Miri. Him he had killed and thereby he had gained a name; so that Alkindar Miri had in return promised to present Ipperu Wasa with the first whom he might capture. And I was the first.

Further the two above-mentioned who had taken me said, “Now will the women lead thee out to the Aprasse: this word I understood not then, but it means dancing. Thus they dragged me along with the ropes, which were round my neck, from out of the huts on to an open place. Then came all the women who were in the seven huts, and seized hold of me, and the men went away. Several of the women led me along by the arms, and several by the ropes which were bound round my neck, so roughly and tightly that I could hardly breathe. In this manner they went along with me, and I knew not what they intended doing to me, upon which I remembered the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how he suffered innocently at the hands of the vile Jews, whereby I consoled myself and became more resigned. Then they brought me before the huts of the king, who was called Vratinge Wasu, which means in German, the Great White Bird. Before his huts lay a heap of freshly dug earth, whither they led me and sat me down thereon, and some held me, when I thought nothing else but that they would dispatch me at once. I looked round for the Iwara Pemme, wherewith they club men, and asked whether they were going to kill me then, when they answered, “not yet.” Upon which a woman came from out of the crowd towards me, holding a fragment of a crystal, set in a thing like a bent ring, and with this same piece of crystal shaved off my eyebrows, and would also have cut the beard from my chin, but this I would not suffer, and said, that they should kill me with my beard. Then they replied, that for the present they would not kill me, and left me my beard. But after some days they cut it off with a pair of scissors, which the Frenchmen had given them.

CAPUT XXIII.

How they danced with me before the huts, wherein they keep their idols
the Tamerka.

Then they led me from the place whore they had shaved off my eyebrows, to before the huts wherein the Tammerka their idols were, and made round about me a circle in the middle of which I stood. Two women were with me, and they tied to one of my legs strings of objects, which rattled, and they also tied an ornament made of birds’ tails, and of square shape, behind my neck, so that it projected above my head; it is called in their language Arasoya. Thereupon the womenkind all began together to sing, and to their time I was obliged to stamp with the leg to which they had tied the rattles, so that they rattled in harmony. But the leg in which I was wounded pained me so badly that I could hardly stand, for I had not yet been bandaged.

CAPUT XXIV.

How, after the dance, they took me home to Ipperu Wasu, who was to
kill me.

Now when the dance came to an end, I was handed over to Ippero Wasu, who kept me in careful custody. Then he told me that I still had some time to live. And they brought all their gods that were in the huts, and placed them round about me and said, that these had prophesied, that they would capture a Portuguese. Then said I, These things have no power, and also cannot speak, and they lie (in asserting) that I am a Portuguese, for I am one of the Frenchmen’s allies and friends, and the country where I am at home (to which I belong), is called Allemanien. Then they said that I must lie, for if I was the Frenchmen’s friend, what was I doing among the Portuguese? They knew full well that the Frenchmen were just as much the enemies of the Portuguese as they. For the Frenchmen came every year with ships, and brought them knives, axes, looking-glasses, combs, and scissors, and for these they gave them Brazil-wood, cotton and other goods, such as featherwork and (red) pepper. Therefore they were their good friends, which the Portuguese had not been. For these had in former years come into the country, and had, in the parts where they were still settled, contracted friendship with their enemies. After that time, they (i.e. the Portuguese) had also come to them, and they had in good faith gone to their ships and entered them, in the same manner in which they to the present day did with the French ships. They said moreover that when the Portuguese had collected enough of them in the ship, they had then attacked them and bound them, and delivered them up to their enemies who had killed and eaten them. Some of them also they had shot dead with their guns, and much more had the Portuguese in their haughty presumption done to them, having also often joined with their enemies for the purpose of capturing them in war.

CAPUT XXV.

How those who had captured me bewailed in angry mood, how the
Portuguese had shot their father; this they would revenge on me.

And they further said that the Portuguese had shot the father of the two brothers who had captured me, in such manner that he died, and that they would now revenge their father’s death on me. Thereupon I asked why they would revenge this upon me? I was not a Portuguese; (adding that) I had lately arrived there with the Castilians: I had suffered shipwreck, and I had from this cause remained among them.

It happened that there was a young fellow of their tribe, who had been a slave of the Portuguese; and the savages among whom the Portuguese live had gone into the Tuppin Imba’s country to make war, and had taken a whole village, and had eaten the elder inhabitants, and had sold those who were young to the Portuguese for goods. So that this young fellow had also been bartered by the Portuguese, and had lived in the neighbourhood of Brikioka with his master who was called Anthonio Agudin, a Gallician.

Those who had captured me had retaken the same slave about three months before.

Now as he was of their tribe, they had not killed him. The said slave knew me well and they asked him who I was. He said it was true, that a vessel had been lost on the shore, and the people who had come therein were called Castilians, and they were friends of the Portuguese. With these I had been, further he knew nothing of me.

Now when I heard, and having also understood that there were Frenchmen among them, and that these were accustomed to arrive there in ships, I always persisted in the same story, and said that I belonged to the allies of the French, that they were to let me remain unkilled, until such time as the Frenchmen came and recognized me. And they kept me in very careful confinement, as there were several Frenchmen among them who had been left by the ships to collect pepper.

CAPUT XXVI.

How one of the Frenchmen who had been left by the ships among the
savages came thither to see me, and advised them to eat me, as I
was a Portuguese.

There was a Frenchman living four miles distant from the huts where I was. Now when be heard the news he proceeded thither, and went into another hut opposite to that wherein I was. Then the savages came running towards me, and said, “Now a Frenchman has arrived here, we shall soon see if you also are a Frenchman or not.” I felt glad of this, and I thought, at all events he is a Christian, and he will say everything for the best.

Then they took me in to him naked as I was, and I saw that he was a young fellow, the savages called him Karwattu ware. He addressed me in French, and I of course understood him not. The savages stood round about us and listened. Now when I could not answer him, he said to the savages in their language, “Kill and eat him, the villain, he is a true Portuguese, my enemy and yours.”And this I understood well. I begged him therefore for God’s sake, that he would tell them not to eat me. Then he said: “They want to eat you,” upon which I remembered the words of Jeremiah (cap. xvii.) who says: “Cursed is he who putteth his trust in man.” And herewith I again went away from them very sorrowful at heart; and I had at the time a piece of linen tied around my shoulders (where could they have obtained it?) This I tore off and threw it before the Frenchman’s feet, and the sun had scorched me severely, and I said to myself, “If I am to die, why should I preserve my flesh for another?” Then they conducted me back to the huts where they confined me. I then went to lie down in my hammock. God knows the misery I endured, and thus I tearfully began to sing the hymn,

Now beg we of the Holy Ghost
The true belief we wish for most.
That He may save us at our end
When from this vale of tears we wend.

Then they said: “He is a true Portuguese, now he howls, he dreads death.”

The above-mentioned Frenchman remained two days there in the huts; on the third day he went on his way. And they had agreed that they would prepare everything, and kill me on the first day after they had collected all things together, and they watched me very carefully, and both young and old mocked and derided me.

CAPUT XXVII.

How I suffered greatly from toothache.

It happened, when I was thus in distress, that to bear out the saying, “misfortunes never come singly,” one of my teeth ached so grievously that I became emaciated from great pain. My master asked me how it was that I ate so little, and I told him that a tooth pained me. Then he came with an instrument made of wood, and wanted to pull it out. I then told him it ached no more; he wanted to pull it out violently. But I resisted so much that he gave up his intention. “Yes,” said he, “if I would not eat and become fatter again, they would kill me before the appointed time.” God knows how often I have heartily desired that I might, if it were His Godly will, die without the savages perceiving it, that they might not work their will upon me.

CAPUT XXVIII.

How they took me to their chief king called Konyan Bebe, and how
they treated me there.

Several days afterwards they took me to another village, which they call Arirab, to a king named Konyan Bebe, the principal king over all of them. Many others had assembled at his place and made great rejoicings in their manner; they also wanted to see me, for he had ordered that I also should be brought there that day.

Now when I came close upon the huts, I heard a great noise of singing and blowing of horns, and in front of the huts were fixed some fifteen heads on stakes. These belonged to a tribe who are also their enemies, and are called the Markayas whom they had eaten. As they led me past them, they told me that the heads were from the Markayas, who were also their enemies. Then terror possessed me; I thought, thus they will also do with me. Now as we were entering the huts, one of those who had me in their keeping, went before me and spoke with loud words, so that all the others heard it, “Here I bring the slave, the Portuguese.” And he appeared to think it was something worth seeing, when a man had his enemy in his power. He said also many other things as is their custom, and then he led me to where the king sat and drank together with the others, and had made themselves drunk with the beverage which they make, called kawawy. He looked savagely at me, and said, “O our enemy! art thou come?” I said: “I am come, but I am not your enemy.” Then they gave me also to drink. Now I had heard much of the king Konyan Bebe, how great a man he was, also a great cannibal at eating human flesh. And there was one among them who seemed to be he, and I went up to him and spake to him in the manner of their language and said: “Art thou Konyan Bebe? livest thou still?” “Yes,” said he, “I still live.” “Well then,” said I, “I have heard much of thee, and that thou art so fine a man.” Then he arose, and strutted before me with proud conceit, and he had a large round green stone, sticking through the lips of his mouth (as their custom is). They also make white rosaries from a kind of sea-shell; such are their ornaments: of these the king had also some six fathoms length hanging round his neck. It was by his ornaments I perceived that he must be one of the noblest.

Thereupon ho again sat down, and began to question me about what his enemies the Tuppin Ikins and the Portuguese were doing. And he asked further, why I had wanted to fire at them in the district of Brikioka, for he had been informed, that I had served there against them as a gunner. Then I said that the Portuguese had stationed me there and that I was obliged so to do. Upon which he said that I also was a Portuguese, and he spoke of the Frenchman who had seen me as his son, and said, that he who had seen me had stated, that I could not speak with him, and that I was a genuine Portuguese. Then I said, “Yes it is true, I have been so long out of my country that I have forgotten my language.” Thereupon he observed, that he had already helped to capture and eat five Portuguese, who had all said that they were Frenchmen, and yet had lied. So that I gave up all hopes of life and resigned myself to God’s will; for I heard nothing else from all of them, but that I should die. Then he again began to ask what the Portuguese said of him, they must surely be in terrible fear of him. I said: “Yes,” they know much to tell of thee, how thou art wont to wage great war against them, but now they have fortified Brikioka more strongly. “Yes,” he said, and therefore he would catch them now and then in the wood as they had caught me.

I further said to him: “Yes, thy real enemies, the Tuppin Ikins, are equipping twenty-five canoes, and will soon appear and invade thy country;” as also happened.

The while he so questioned, the others stood and listened. In short he asked me much and told me much; boasting to me how ho had already killed many a Portuguese, and savages besides who had been his enemies. During the time he was thus talking to me, the liquor in the huts was drunk up. Then they moved off to another hut to drink therein also, so that he ceased speaking.

After this those in the other hut began to carry on their jokes and to deride me. The said king’s son having tied my legs together in three places, I was made to hop with joined feet through the huts; at this they laughed and said, “there comes our meat hopping along.” Upon this I asked my master (Ippera Wasu) who had taken me there, whether he had led me thither to be killed. He said no, it was the custom, that foreign slaves were treated in this manner, and they again untied the ropes round my legs, thereupon they walked round about me and grabbed at my flesh, one said the skin of the head belonged to him and another that he claimed the fleshy part of the leg. Then I had to sing to them, and I sang spiritual songs. These I was asked to translate to them in their language, and I said, “I have sung of my God.” They said my God was filth, that is in their language, “Teuire.” These words hurt me much and I thought, “merciful God, how long-suffering Thou art!” Now on the nest day when all in the village had seen me and had heaped every insult upon me, the king Konyan Bebe told those who had charge of me, that they were to watch me carefully,

Thereupon, when they again led me from out of the huts, and were going to take me to Uwattibi, where they intended killing me, they called mockingly after me that they would not fail to appear at my master’s hut, to drink over me and to eat me. But my master always comforted me, saying that I was not to be killed for the present.

CAPUT XXIX.

How the twenty-five canoes of the Tappin Ikins, whereof I had told the
king, arrived, intending to attack the huts wherein I was.

Meanwhile it so happened, that the twenty-five canoes belonging to the savage tribe of whom the Portuguese are allies, and who as I also stated previous to my being captured, were desirous of proceeding thither to make war; it so happened (I say) that one morning they fell upon the village.

Now when the Tuppin Ikins were about to attack the huts, and together began shooting in upon them, those in the huts became distressed, and the women prepared for flight.

Then I said to them, “You take me for a Portuguese, your enemy; now give me a bow and arrows and let me go loose, and I will help you to defend the huts.” They handed me a bow and arrows; I shouted and shot and acted as like them as I possibly could, and encouraged them to be of good heart and valorous, and that no harm would come to them. And my intention was to push through the stockade which surrounds the huts, and to run towards the others, for they knew me well, and also were aware that I was in the village. But they watched me too well. Now when the Tuppin Ikins saw that they could not succeed, they again repaired to their canoes and sailed away. When they had departed, I was imprisoned again.

CAPUT XXX.

How the chiefs assembled in the evening by moonlight.

About eventide on the day when the others had again gone off, and by moonlight they assembled together on the open space between the huts, and debated among one another, and determined when they would kill me. Placing me also between them they derided and threatened me. I was sad, and looked at the moon, and thought to myself, “O my Lord and my God, assist me through this peril to a peaceful end!” Then they asked me why I so constantly looked at the moon: Then I said to them: “I see by her aspect that she is angry.” For the face which is in the moon, appeared even to me to be so terrible (God forgive me this!) that I thought myself, that God and all creatures must be angry with me. Thereupon the king who was to have me killed, called Jeppipo Wasu, one of the kings of the huts, asked me, with whom is the moon angry? I said, “she looks towards thy huts.” For these words he began to speak angrily to me. In order to recall the words, I said, “It will not be thy huts, she is angry with the Carios slaves,” (which is also the name of a savage tribe). “Yes,” said he, “upon them fall every misfortune, so be it,” I thought no further about this.

CAPUT XXXI.

How the Tuppin Ikins had burnt another village called Mambukabe.

The following day news came from a village called Mambukabe, that the Tuppin Ikins, when they had departed from where I lay imprisoned, had attacked it, and that the inhabitants had fled, except a little boy, whom they had captured, after which they had set fire to the huts. Then Jeppipo Wasu (who had power of life and death over me, and who treated me very cruelly), as they (the people of Mambukabe) were his friends and allies, repaired thither, to assist them in re-erecting their huts, and for this purpose took with him all his friends from his village. He also had the intention of thence bringing (potter’s) clay and root-meal (mandioca) with which to prepare the feast and eat me. And when he left, he ordered him to whom he had presented me, called Ipperu Wasu, to look well after me. Thus they were absent perhaps more than a fortnight, and they prepared every thing there.

CAPUT XXXII.

How a ship arrived from Brickioka and inquired after me, and they gave
a short account of me.

Meanwhile came a ship from the Portuguese Brickioka, anchored not far from where I was imprisoned, and fired a gun, so that the savages might hear and come to parley.

Now when they became aware of their presence, they said to me, “There come thy friends the Portuguese, and perhaps they desire to know if thou still livest, and they may possibly wish to buy thee.” Then I said, “It will probably be my brother,” for I supposed that the Portuguese ships which sailed past that part of the country, would inquire after me. Therefore that the savages might not think I was a Portuguese, I told them that I had among the Portuguese another brother who was also a Frenchman. Now when the ship arrived and I said it must be my brother, they would not believe otherwise than that I was a Portuguese, and sailed close enough to the ship to be able to parley. When the Portuguese had asked, how it fared with me, they had answered them, that they were to inquire no further about me. And the ship proceeded on her course, perhaps they fancied I was dead. God knows what my feelings were when I saw the ship sail away! They said among themselves: We have the right man, they already send ships after him.

CAPUT XXXIII.

How the king’s brother Jeppipo Wasu came from Mambukabe, told me
how his brother and his mother, together with all the rest had
fallen sick, and demanded of me, that I should intercede with my
God, so that they might recover again.

And I every day expected the others who, as stated above, were away, and were preparing for me. Thereupon one day I heard a howling in the huts of the king who was absent. I became alarmed, and I thought they had come back, (for it is the custom of the savages, that when one of them returns, after having been away no longer than four days, his friends shout with joy). Shortly after the shouting, one of them came to me and said, “thy part-owner has come and says, that the others have fallen very sick.” Then I rejoiced and thought, “Here God desires to do something.” A little while thereafter my part-owner’s brother, entering the hut wherein I was, sat down by me and began to cry, and said that his brother, his mother, and his brother’s children had all fallen sick together, and his brother had sent him to me and he was to tell me: that I should intercede with my God, so that they might become sound again. He also said: “My brother imagines that thy God must be angry.” I replied, “Yes, my God in angry, because he wants to eat me, and he has gone to Mambukabe and he is making ready there.” And quoth I to him, “You declare that I am a Portuguese and yet I am none;” and I said to him: “Go hence to thy brother, let him return to his huts,” (adding) that I would then pray to my God for his recovery. Thereupon he told me that he was too ill to come, and that he knew well and had observed how if I but desired it, lie would become well. And I told him, he was to wait until he was strong enough to come home to his huts, then he should be completely restored. He went back again with the answer to Mambukabe, which is four miles (leagues) from Uwattibi where I was.

CAPUT XXXIV.

How the sick king, Jeppipo Wasu, returned home again.

After several days, they all of them came home together sick. Then he (Jeppipo) ordered me to be led to his huts, and told me how they had been stricken with illness, and that I had well known it, for he still remembered that I had said the moon looked angrily towards the huts. When I heard these words from him, I thought to myself: “Surely it must have been through God’s providence, that I last night, as aforesaid, spoke about the moon.” I was in great joy at this and thought: “To-day God is with me.”

Then I told him that it was true, because he wanted to eat me, though I was not his enemy, and therefore had misfortune come upon him. Upon which he said that nothing should happen to me if it turned out that he recovered. I knew not how best to pray to God, and thought, “if they regain health they will yet kill me, but if they die, the others will say, let us kill him, before more misfortune happens on his account,” as they had already begun to say. I submitted the matter to God. He (Jeppipo) begged me hard that they might again recover. I walked round them, and laid my hands upon their heads as they desired me to do. God would not have it so, they began to die, first died one of their children, then his mother died, an old woman who intended baking the pots, wherein were to be made the beverages with which I was to be eaten.

After some days one of his brothers died then another child, and another brother, who as beforesaid had brought me the news that they had fallen ill.

Now when he saw, that his children, his mother and his brothers were gone, he feared much, that he and his wives would also die. Then he said that I was to tell my God to withdraw his anger, so that he might live. I comforted him greatly, and told him there was no danger, but that when he recovered again he was not to think of killing me. Thereupon he answered “No,” and also commanded those in the huts that nobody should injure me, or threaten to eat me. He nevertheless remained ill for a time, but he was (at last) restored to health, together with one of his wives, who was also ill. There died, however, about eight of his friends, besides others, who had treated me cruelly. Now there were yet two other kings from two other huts, the one named Vratinge Wasu, the other Kenrimakui. Vratinge Wasu had dreamt, that I had appeared before him, and had told him, that he was to die. And he came in the morning early to me and complained thereof to me, I said “No,” he was not to be afraid, but that he also was not to think of killing me, or advise others to do it. Then he answered “no,” as they, who had captured me would not kill me, so he also would do me no harm, and even if they killed me, he would not eat of me.

In like manner the other king Kenrimakui, had also dreamt of me, a dream which terrified him much, and he called me to his hut, and gave me to eat and then complained of it to me, and said, he had once been to war, and had captured a Portuguese, and had killed him with his own hands, and had eaten of him so plentifully, that his chest (stomach) had ever since been delicate. And (he declared that) he would eat of no other. So now he had dreamt of me such a terrible dream that he thought he was also to die. Him also I bade be of good cheer, but he was to take care never to eat human flesh again.

And the old women in the several huts who had also tormented me cruelly, tearing me, beating, and threatening to eat me, these same then called me “Scheraeire,” that is, “my son – thou wilt surely not let us die. When we thus treated thee, we thought thou wert one of the Portuguese, whom we so much hate. We have also had several Portuguese and eaten them, but their God was not so angry as thine. By this we now see, that thou canst not be a Portuguese.”

Thus they left me alone for a while, not knowing quite what to make of me, whether I was a Portuguese or a Frenchman. They said I had a red beard like a Frenchman, and though they had also seen Portuguese, yet these had all black beards.

After this panic, when one of my masters recovered again, they spoke no more to me about eating, but guarded me just as strictly, not allowing me to go about by myself.

CAPUT XXXV.

How the Frenchman who had commanded the savages to eat me,
returned, and I begged him to take me with him. But my masters
would not part with me.

Now the Frenchman Karwattu Ware (of whom I have before said, that he went away from me with the savages, who accompanied him, and who were friends of the Frenchmen) had remained there to collect the goods which the savages produce, namely (red) pepper, and a kind of feathers which they also have.

But when he was travelling back to that part of the country where the ships arrived, called Mungu Wappe and Iterroenne, he had to pass through the place where I was. “When he set out he expected nought but that they would eat me he had also commanded them so to do; and, as he had been absent for some time, he little expected to find me otherwise than dead.

Now when he again came to me in the huts, he spoke to me in the savage tongue, and at that time I went about unfettered. Then he asked me if I still lived, when I said “Yes, I thanked God, that he had preserved me so long.” Perhaps he might have heard from the savages how this had happened, and I called him privately to a spot where the savages could not hear what I said, and told him that he saw plainly that God had preserved my life, also that I was no Portuguese, but a German, and had through shipwreck with the Spaniards, come among the Portuguese, that he also might now tell the savages, how I had informed him that I belonged to his friends and allies, and that he desired to take me with him to where the ships arrived. For I feared that, if he did not do this, they would yet consider these statements as lies, and some time or other when in anger they might kill me.

And I made him an admonition in their savage language, and I asked if he had not a Christian heart in his bosom, or had thought that after this life there was no other, when he had so strongly advised that I should be killed? Thereupon he began to repent and said, he had believed me to be no other than one of the Portuguese, who were such great villains, that if they were ever to catch any of them (the French) in that province of Brazil they would hang them at once – which is true; also, said he, that they had to give way to the savages, and were obliged to be satisfied with the manner in which they proceeded with their enemies, for they were the hereditary enemies of the Portuguese.

According to my request, he told the savages that he had not well recognised me the first time, but that I was from Germany, and belonged to their friends, and that he wanted to take me with him to where the ships generally arrived. Then my masters said, “No;” they would give me up to nobody unless my own father or brother came there, and brought them a ship-load of goods, namely, hatchets, mirrors, knives, combs, and scissors, and gave these to them; for they had found me in the enemy’s country, and I belonged to them.

When the Frenchman heard this, he told me that he well heard they would not part with me. Thereupon, I begged him, for God’s sake, that he might send for me and take me to France in the first ship that might arrive. This he promised me, and he told the savages that they were to take care of, and not to kill me, for my friends would come soon to fetch me. With this he went away.

Now when the Frenchman departed, one of my masters, named Alkindar Miri (not he who was sick), asked me what Karwattuwara (which was the name of the Frenchman in the savage language) had given to me: if be was one of my countrymen. I said “Yes.” Quoth he, “why has he not given thee a knife, which though mightiest have given to me,” and he became angry. Afterwards, when they all became well again, they once more began to murmur about me, and said among themselves that the Frenchmen were, after all, not worth more than the Portuguese; so I began to fear harm again.

CAPUT XXXVI.

How they ate a prisoner and led me thereto.

But it happened after several days that they wanted to eat a prisoner, in a village called Tickquarippe about six miles [leagues] from where I lay imprisoned; so several out of the tut where I was, also went, and led me with them, and the slave whom they were going to eat belonged to a tribe called Marckaya, and we sailed thither in a canoe.

Now when the time came for their wanting to drink over him (for it is their custom, when they intend eating a man, they make a drink from a root called kawi, and when this is drunk they afterwards kill him), on the eve of the day when they intended drinking to his death, I went to him and said to him, “Everything is prepared for thy death.” He laughed and said, “Yes.” Now the cords wherewith they bind the prisoners, called Massurana, are made of cotton, and are more than a finger thick. “Yes,” said he, he was well prepared with everything, only the Mussurana was not quite long enough (for it wanted about six fathoms in length). “Yes,” said he, “with us they are better;” and he spake in such manner as if he were going to a festival.

Now I had with me a book in the Portuguese language. The savages had taken it from a ship which, with the assistance of the French they had captured. This they gave to me.

And I went away from the prisoner and read the book, and I felt pity for him. Thereafter I again went to him and spoke with him (for the Portuguese have also this same tribe of Markaya for friends), and said, “I am also a prisoner, as well as thou, and have not come hither that I might eat of thee, but my masters have brought me with them.” Then, said he, he knew well that we eat not of human flesh.

Further I told him he was to be of good cheer, for they would only eat his flesh, but his soul would proceed to another place, whither our countrymen’s souls also proceeded, and where there was much happiness. He then asked if this were really true. I said “Yes.” But, quoth he, he had never seen God. I said he would see Him in the next life. Now when I had finished this discourse with him, I went from him.

The night of the same day when I had spoken with him, a great wind arose and blew so terribly that it carried off pieces of the hut roofs. Then the savages began to be angry with me, and said in their language, “Appo meiren geuppawy wittu wasu Immon” – the bad man, the wizard now makes the wind to come, for during the day he looked into the thunder-skins (Donnorheude), meaning the book which I had. And they said that I did it because the slave was our (the Portuguese) friend, and that I, perhaps, intended thereby to hinder the feast through bad weather. I prayed to the Lord God and said, “Lord, thou hast protected me thus far, protect me further,” for they grumbled much at me.

Now when the day broke, the weather became fine, and they drank, and were well pleased. Then I went to the slave and said that the great wind was God, and that he wanted to take him away. Thereupon, the next day, he was eaten. How this is done you will see in the last chapters.

CAPUT XXX VII.

What happened on the home-voyage when they had eaten him.

When the feast had been held, we again sailed to our habitations, and my masters took some of the roast flesh with them, and we were three days on the home voyage, which may generally be done in about one day, but it blew and rained much. They therefore told me on the first day, when, in the evening, they were making huts in the wood, wherein to rest, that I was to cause the rain to stop. There was a boy with us who had still a bone of the slave’s leg, whereon there was left some flesh, which he ate. I bade the boy to throw the bone away. Then he and the others became angry with me, saying that it was their proper food. I let the matter rest there. We were three days on the journey.

When we arrived within a quarter of a mile (league) from the habitations, we could get no further, for the waves rose high. We drew the canoe on shore, and thought that the next day the weather would be fine, and that we could then take the canoe home; but it was equally stormy. Then they were of opinion to go by land, and afterwards, when the weather should become fine, to fetch the canoe. As we were about to leave, they ate, and the boy finished gnawing the flesh from off the bone. Thereupon he threw it away, and we started by land, and the weather became fine again. “Well,” said I, “you would not believe me when I told you that my God was angry, and therefore the boy ate the flesh from the bone.” “Yes,” said the others,” had he but eaten it so that I had not seen it, the weather would have remained fine.” Thus the matter ended.

When I again arrived there in the huts, Alkindar, who also had a share of me, asked me if I had now seen how they disposed of their enemies. Then I said “Yes, that you eat them appears terrible to me. The killing is not so terrible.” “Yes,” said he, “that is our, custom, so we also do to Portuguese.”

This same Alkindar was very spiteful to me, and would have been glad if he to whom he had given me had killed me; for, as you have read before, Ipperu Wasu had presented a slave to him to kill, so that he should thereby obtain another name. Therefore Alkindar had promised him in return to present him with the first slave whom he might capture. Now as this did not appear to succeed in my case, he would gladly have killed me himself, but his brother prevented him in every way, for he feared that greater plagues might come upon him.

This same Alkindar, before the others led me to where they ate the prisoner, had once more threatened to eat me. When I came back again, he had, whilst I was absent, suffered from an eye-ache. He was obliged to lie still, and for a time he could not see. He told me constantly that I should speak with my God, so that his eyes might again become well. Then I said, “Yes,” but that he should afterwards meditate no evil against me. He replied “No.” Then, after several days he was again restored to health.

CAPUT XXXVIII.

How a ship was again sent after me by the Portuguese.

Now during the fifth month of my stay with them, there arrived another ship from the island of S. Vincent, for the Portuguese are accustomed to sail well armed to their enemy’s country, and to barter with them, giving them knives and reaping hooks (hepen) for mandioca meal, of which the same savages there have much in various places, and the Portuguese, who have many slaves for sugar cultivation, procure this meal, wherewith to feed these same. And when the ships barter in such manner with these savages, two or three of the latter arrive in a canoe, and deliver the goods to them at the greatest possible distance. Then they declare what they want to have in return, which is given to them by the Portuguese. But whilst the two are near the ship, a number of full canoes keep in the offing to look on, and when the trading is completed, the savages oftentimes approach alongside, and skirmish with the Portuguese and shoot arrows at them, after which they again paddle away.

The before-mentioned ship’s crew fired off a gun, so the wild men might hear that a ship was there, and they sailed thither. Then it appears that they had asked after me, if I still lived. They, my captors, had answered “Yes.” The Portuguese had thereupon demanded to see me, for they had a chest full of goods, brought by my brother, also a Frenchman, who was with them in the ship.

Now there was with the Portuguese in the ship a Frenchman called Claudio Mirando, who had formerly been my companion; this same I called my brother. He said, “I will, perhaps, be in the vessel and inquire after you”, for he had already been on one voyage there.

And they returned again from the ship to shore, and told me that my brother had once more come, and had brought me a chest full of wares, and wished much to see me. Then I said, “Lead me to within a certain distance of them; I will speak with my brother – the Portuguese understand us not – and I wilt tell him that he advise our father when he returns home to come with a ship and bring plenty of goods with him, and fetch me.” This plan appeared satisfactory to the ; but they feared that the Portuguese might understand us, for they had in prospect a great war, which they intended carrying out in the month of August, in the country of Brikioka, where I was captured. I well knew all their plans; therefore they feared lest I should tell something thereof. But I said, “No; the Portuguese do not understand mine and my brother’s language.” Then they carried me to within about a stone’s throw of the ship, naked, as I always went among them. I addressed those in the ship, and said “God, the Lord, be with you, my dear brothers. Let one alone speak to me, and let them hear not otherwise than that I am a Frenchmen.” Then began one called Johann Senches, a Boschkeyer whom I knew well, and said to me, “My dear brother, for your sake have we come hither in the ship, and we knew not if you were living or dead, for the first ship brought no news of you. Now the Captain Brascupas, at Sanctus, has commanded us to discover if you were still alive, and when we should hear of your being alive, we must learn if they will sell you, and if not, we must see whether we cannot capture several for whom to exchange you.”

Then I said, “Now may God in eternity reward you, for I am here in great fear and danger, and I know not yet what they will do. They would probably have eaten me before this, if God bad not wonderfully prevented it.” Further I told them, “They will not sell me to you, therefore think not of it, and do not in any way shew otherwise than that I am a Frenchman, and for God’s sake give me some wares, knives and fishing-hooks.” This they did, and one went with a canoe to the ship and fetched them.

Now when I saw that the savages would not allow me to speak further with them, I said to the Portuguese, take heed, they have a war in view against Brikioka. Then they told me that their friendly savages were also preparing, and would attack the same village wherein they kept me; and they bade me be of good heart, God would do everything for the best. As I well saw that they could not assist me, “Yes,” said I, “inasmuch as my sins have merited this, it is better that God punish me here than in the next world, and pray ye to God that he may see me out of my misery.”

Therewith, I commended them to God the Lord, and they wished to speak further with me; but the savages would no longer permit me to parley with them, and again sailed back with me to the huts.

Then I took the knives and fishing hooks, which I gave to them saying, “All this my brother the Frenchman has given to me.” Thereupon they asked me what it all was that my brother had spoken to me. I said that I had commanded my brother to try and escape from the Portuguese, and proceed to our native country and to bring a ship full of many goods, and to fetch me, for you are good men and treat me well, wherefore I would reward you when the ship shall come. And I had in such manner at all times to conciliate them as best I could, and this pleased them mightily.

Then they said to one another, “He must certainly be a Frenchman, let us henceforward treat him better.” Thus I continued among them for a time, and told them, “A ship will soon come for me,” and that they were to treat me well. After this they led me now and again into the forest, and when they had any work to do, I was obliged to help them.

CAPUT XXXIX.

How they had a slave among them who constantly lied about me, and
would willingly have seen them kill me at once, and how the same
was killed and eaten in my presence.

Now among them was a slave belonging to a tribe called the Carios, who are also enemies of the savages that are friends of the Portuguese. This same had been captured by the Portuguese and had then run away from them. Those who escape to them they do not kill, unless they commit some particular crime; but they hold them as their slaves, bound to serve them.

The said Cario (Carjó) had been three years among these Tuppin Imbas, and said that he had seen me among the Portuguese, and that I had shot several times at the Tuppin Imbas, when they had gone thither to make war.

Now the Portuguese had several years ago shot one of their kings, which king, the Cario said, I had shot, and he constantly urged them to kill me, for I was the real enemy, and he had seen it; yet he lied altogether, for he had been three years among them, and only a year had passed after my arrival at Sanct Vincente, whence he had escaped. And I constantly prayed to God that he might protect me from these lies.

So it happened about the year 1554, during the sixth month of my captivity, that the Cario fell sick, and his master who owned him begged me to help him, that he might get well again and catch game, bringing something for us to eat, especially as I knew well that when he brought him anything, he also gave me thereof. But that if I thought that he would not recover again, he would give him to a good friend, who might kill him and gain a name by him.

And in such manner he had been about nine or ten days sick. Now they have the teeth of an animal which they call Backe, one of these (teeth) they sharpen, and then they cut with it through the skin where the blood is sluggish, and it runs out. This, with them, is equivalent to our cupping.

Of these said teeth I took one and meant therewith to open the middle vein. But I could not pierce it therewith as the tooth was too blunt, and they stood round about me. “When I again went away from him and saw that it was useless, they asked me if he would recover. I told them that I had not succeeded, and that no blood had come, as they had well seen. “Yes,” they said, “he will die, we will, therefore, ere he dies, strike him dead.” I said, “No, do not this, he may perhaps recover.” But it availed not, they dragged him before King Uratinge’s huts, and two of them held him, for he was so sick, that he knew not what they were going to do with him. And so came the one to whom he had been given to kill, and struck him on the head, so that the brain sprang out, then they left him lying before the huts and wished to eat him. I told them not to do this, as he had been sick, and they might also fall ill. Therefore, they knew not what to do. But one came out of the hut wherein I was, and called to the women to make a fire near the dead man, and he cut his head off – for his eye and appearance were loathsome from his disease, so he threw the head away, and singed the skin off the body at the fire. Then he cut him up and divided him equally with the others, as is their custom, and ate him all but the head and bowels, of which they had a loathing, as be had been sick.

Thereafter I went now and again through the huts; in one they broiled the feet, in another the hands, and in a third, pieces of the trunk. Then I told them, how that the Cario whom they were there broiling, and were going to eat, had at all times lied against me, and had said that I had shot several of their friends when I was with the Portuguese, and in this he had lied, for he had never seen me. You know well, I continued, that he was several years among you, and never was ill, but now on account of the lies which he told about me, my God has become angry, and has stricken him with sickness, and has put into your minds that you should kill him and eat him. So will my God do unto all wicked men who have worked me harm, and who would further injure me. At such words they were much terrified. I thank Almighty God, that he, in everything shewed himself to me so powerful and so gracious,

I THEREFORE BEG THE READER that he will late notice of my writing. For I trouble myself not thus, in order that I am desirous of composing something new, but solely to bring to light the vouchsafed mercies of God.

And thus the time drew near when they wanted to go to war, for which they had prepared themselves during the three previous months. So I hoped constantly, that when they went away, they would leave me at home with the women, and that thus I might escape during their absence.

CAPUT XL.

How a French ship arrived, and traded with the savages for cotton and
Brazil-wood, to which ship I had lief gone, but it was not intended
by God.

About eight days before they purposed setting forth to war, a French ship had arrived eight miles (leagues) off at a harbour which the Portuguese call Rio de Jenero, and in the savage language Iteronne. There the French are used to load Brazil-wood, so they now also came with their boat near the village where I was, and took in exchange from the natives pepper, monkeys, and parrots. One came out of the boat on shore, who understood the savage tongue, he was named Jacob, and he traded with them. I begged him to take me with him on board the ship, but my masters said “No,” they would not send me away in such manner, but they wanted to have many goods for me. Then I said to them that they were to carry me themselves to the vessel, as my friends would give them enough goods. They said “No, they are not thy real friends.”

“For those who are here with the boat would have given thee a shirt, as thou art naked, but they heed thee not” (which was true). I replied, they will clothe me when I get to the big ship. They said the ship would not sail away for the present, as they had first to go to war, but that when they came back they would bear me to it. And so now the boat was about to sail away again, for it had been anchored one night at the village.

Now when I saw that they were about to sail off again in the boat, I thought, “Thou Gracious God, if the ship now also sail away, and take me not with it, I shall yet perish among them, for it is a people wherein no faith can be placed.” With this thought I went out of the hut, towards the water, and they perceived it, and rushed after me. I ran before them, and they tried to catch me. The first who came up to me I struck away from me, and the whole village was after me; yet I escaped them and swam to the boat. Now when I wished to get into it, the Frenchmen pushed me off, saying that if they took me away with them against the will of the savages, these might rise against them and become their enemies also. Then I sadly swam back to shore again, and thought, “Now I see it is God’s will that I remain longer in misery.” And if I had not tried to escape, I should afterwards have thought that it was my fault.

When I returned to the shore, they were joyful and said, “Now he comes back again.” Then I reproached them and said, “Think you that I would so escape you. I have been to the boat and have told my countrymen that they are to prepare against the time when ye come back from the war and bring me (to them), and (they are to) collect a good many wares, and give them to you.” This pleased them well, and they were once more satisfied.

CAPUT XLI.

How the savages set forth to war, and took me with them, and what
happened on the expedition.

Four days thereafter, several canoes which were going to the war assembled by the village where I was. Then the chief, Konyan Bebe, also arrived there with his (boats), and my master said that he would take me with him. I proposed that he should leave me at home, and he would, perhaps, have done so, but Konyan Bebe declared that he must take me in their company. I allowed them to see that I went unwillingly, so that they might not suspect (as they would have done) if I had gone willingly with them, that I would try to escape them when they arrived in their enemies’ country, and that they might keep watch over me less strictly. It was also my plan, if they had left me at home, to have escaped to the French ships.

But they took me with them, and they were thirty-eight canoes strong, each manned with eighteen, more or less, and some of them had prophesied about the war, with their idols, with dreams, and with other foolery, according to their custom, so that they were well-disposed for the undertaking, and their intention was to proceed to the district of Brickioka, where they had captured me, and to hide themselves in the forest round about the place, and to take with them those who in such manner might fall into their hands.

And when we began this expedition it was in the year 1554, about the thirteenth day of August. Now in this month, as before-stated, a kind of fish, called in the Portuguese language Doynges, in Spanish, Liesses, and in the native language Bratti, pass from the sea to the fresh waters, therein to spawn; and the savages call this season Pirakien. They then generally go to war on both sides, their enemies as well as themselves, in order to catch and to eat the fish on their journey; and on the voyage thither they proceed slowly, but on the return as quickly as they can.

Now I always hoped that those who are friends of the Portuguese would also be on the war-path. For they also intended invading the other’s country, as the Portuguese in the ship had before told me.

They constantly asked me during the voyage, whether they would capture anybody. I said, “Yes,” that I might not anger them. I also told them that the enemies would meet us; so we lay one night in a place which is also called Uwattibi. Here we caught many of the fish Bratti, which are as large as a good-sized pike. And it blew strongly during the night, therefore they talked much with me, and asked me many questions, when I said that this wind blew over many dead men. And it so happened that another party of them had proceeded through the country up a river called the Paraibe. “Yes,” said they, “they have attacked the enemy’s country close by, and several of them have been killed, (which, as I afterwards learned, had really happened).

Now when we were within a day’s journey (of the place) whence they intended carrying out their plan, they bivouacked in a wood on an island which is called San Sabastian by the Portuguese; but the savages call it Meyenbipe.

As evening came on, the chief called Konyan Bebe went through the camp in the forest, harangued (his men), and said that they had now arrived close to the enemy’s country, that everyone was to remember the dream which he would dream that night, and that they were to take care and have lucky dreams. When this speech was finished, they danced with their idols until night, then they slept. When my master lay down, he said that I was also to try and dream propitiously. I replied that I placed but little faith in dreams; as they were false. “So bring about, nevertheless, with thy God,” said he, “that we capture some enemies.”

Now when the day broke the chiefs assembled around a cauldron full of stewed fish, which they ate, and recounted their dreams, in so far as that they had well pleased them. Some danced with the idols, and they were willing to set forth early on the same day for their enemy’s country, to a place called Boywassu Kange. There they would then abide until evening came.

Now when we had set forth from the place where we had passed the night, named Meyenbipe, they asked me once more what my presentiments were. Then I said at haphazard, “by Boywassu Kange the enemy will meet us, be but brave,” At this Boywassu Kange it was my intention to have escaped from them, when we had arrived there, for we were six miles (leagues) distant from the place where they had captured me.

Now as we in such manner sailed along the coast, we also saw canoes which approached from behind an island to meet us. Thereupon they cried, “Here also come our enemies, the Tuppin Ikins.” But they tried to hide themselves, with their canoes, behind a rock, so that the others might pass them unawares. They soon saw us, and turned to escape homewards, and we rowed after them as fast as possible, for some four hours, when we caught them up, and there were five canoes full, all from Brickioka. I knew them all, one with another. There were six Mammelueks in one of the five canoes. These had been baptised, and two of them were brothers, one called Diego de Praga, the other Domingos de Praga. The two opposed great resistance, one with a blow-pipe, the other with a bow, and both defended themselves two whole hours against thirty odd canoes of ours. Now when they had exhausted their arrows, the Tuppin Imba attacked them, captured them, and several were at once killed or shot. The two brothers were not hurt; but two of the six Mammelucks were severely wounded, and also several of the Tappio Ikins, among whom was a woman.

CAPUT XLII.

How they disposed of the prisoners on the return voyage.

It was two good miles (leagues), out at sea, away from the land, where they (the enemies) were captured; and they (the victors) hastened, as fast as they could, back, in order to encamp upon the shore where we lay the night before. Now, when we arrived at the land of Meyen, it was evening, and the sun was about to set. Thereupon, they led their prisoners, each one his own, into his hut. Those who had been badly wounded they at once despatched and cut them in pieces according to their custom, and broiled the flesh. Among those who were roasted that night were two Mammelucks who were Christians. The one was a Portuguese named George Ferrero, the son of a Captain who had had him by a native woman. The other was named Hieronymus, who was caught by a savage that belonged to the hut wherein I was, and his name was Parwaa. The same fried Hieronymus during the night at about a step’s distance from where I lay. The said Hieronymus (may God have his soul) was a blood relation of Diego de Praga.

That same evening, when they had lain down, I went to the huts in which they kept the two brothers, purporting to speak with them, for they had been my good friends at Brickioka, where I had been captured. They asked me whether they also would be eaten. I said that they must leave that to the will of our Heavenly Father, and of his dear Son Jesus Christ, who suffered on the cross for our sins, and in whose name we were baptised with him unto death. “In him,” said I, “I also believe, and he himself has also preserved me so long among them, and whatever Almighty God does unto us, therewith we must remain content.”

Further the two brothers asked me how it fared with their cousin Hieronymus. I told them that he lay before the fire, and was roasting, and that I had also seen a piece of Ferrero’s son eaten. Then they wept. I comforted them again, and told them that they knew well that I had now been about eight months among them (the savages), and that God had yet preserved me. “This he will also do by you, trust him.” Further I said, “I ought to feel this much more than you, for I am from a foreign land, and not accustomed to the terrible deeds of these people; but you have been born and bred here in the country.” “Yes,” said they. I had become so callous, though, by misery that I no longer felt it.

Now when I was thus conversing with them, the savages ordered me to go from them into my hut, and asked what matter I had to speak so long to them about. This made me sorry that I had to go from them. I told them that they must give themselves up entirely to God (as) they saw well what misery we suffered in this vale of tears. They replied that they had never experienced this so fully as now, and said that they owed God at all events one death, and they would die the more joyfully, as I also was with them. Herewith I went out of their hut, and passed through the whole camp, visiting the prisoners. I wandered about free, and nobody paid any attention to me. I could have escaped that time, for it was at an island called Meyenbipe, which might be about ten miles (leagues) distant from Brickioka, but I refrained on account of the Christian prisoners, of whom four were still alive. For I thought, “If I run away from them they will be angry, and will immediately kill them. Perhaps, meanwhile, God will preserve us all together;” and I determined, therefore, to remain with them and to comfort them, as I also did. But the savages were very well disposed towards me, for I had before told them at hazard that the enemy would encounter us. Now as this so happened, they said that I was a better prophet than their Miraka.

CAPUT XLIII.

How they danced with their enemies when we encamped the next day.

The next day we arrived, not far from their country, at an extensive chain of mountains called Occarasu. There they encamped, in order to pass the night. Then I went into the hut of the chief king (called Konyan Bebe), and asked him what he purposed doing with the Mammelucks. He said they were to be eaten, and he forbade me to speak with them, for he was angry with them, as they should have remained at home, and not have gone to war with his enemies against him, I told him he should let them live, and sell them back to their friends. He replied they should be eaten.

And this Konyan Bebe had a large basket full of human flesh before him, ate (a bit) off a leg, held it before my mouth, and asked if I also would eat it. I replied “Unreasoning animals hardly devour their kind; ought one man, therefore, to devour another?” He took a bite, saying, “Jauware sche;” I am a tiger-animal. It tastes well.” With this I went from him.

That same evening he commanded that each should bring his captives before the wood to an open apace, near the water. This was done. Then they assembled together, and made a large ring, wherein stood the captives. Then the latter had all to sing and to rattle with the Tammaraka idols. Now when the prisoners had danced, they began to speak, one after the other, boastfully saying, “Yes, we went forth, as it beseems valiant men, to capture and to eat you, our enemies. Now you have gained the upper hand, and have captured us, but we care not for this. Braves die in their enemy’s country, and as our land is still large, the others will revenge us well upon you.” “Yes,” said the others, “you have already destroyed many of ours, and for this we will have our revenge of you.” When these speeches were finished, each led his prisoner back to his quarters.

Thereupon, on the third day, we again reached their country, each leading his captive to his dwelling. Those in the village of Uwattibi, where I was, had taken eight savages alive, and three Mammelucks, who were Christians, namely, Diego and his brother, and yet another Christian, called Anthonio, whom my masters’ sons had captured; and also they took home two other Mammelucks who were Christians, (ready) roasted, and to be eaten there. This was on the eleventh day of our journey out and back.

CAPUT XLIV.

How the French ship, to which they intended taking me, as they had
promised me, when they returned from the war, etc., as recounted
above, was still there.

Now, when we had again returned home, I demanded that they should take me to the French ship, for I had been to war with them, and had helped them to capture their enemies from whom they had now heard it confessed that I was not a Portuguese.

They said “Yes,” they would take me to it, but they must first rest and eat the Mokaen – that is, the roasted flesh of the two Christians.

CAPUT XLV.

How they ate the first of the two roasted Christians, namely, Jorge
Ferrero, the son of the Portuguese captain.

Now there was a king in some huts close to the huts where I was. The same was named Tatamiri. He had charge of the roasted bodies, and had caused much liquor to be prepared, according to their custom; and many of them had assembled, drunk, sung, and made great rejoicings. Thereupon, the next day after the drinking, they again cooked the roast flesh and ate it; but the flesh of Hieronymus, the other, was hung in the hut wherein I was, in a basket above the fire, exposed to the smoke during fully three weeks, until it became as dry as a piece of wood, from having remained so long over the fire uneaten.

This was owing to the savage, called Parwaa, who had charge of it. He had gone elsewhere to fetch roots for making the beverage which would be drunk (when feasting upon) the flesh of Hieronymus, so that the time passed, and they would not lead me to the ship before they had made their feast off (the remains of) Hieronymus, and had eaten the flesh. During this time the French ship had again sailed, for it lay about eight miles away from where I was.

When I heard this news I became sad, but the savages said they were in the habit of coming there every year, wherewith I must be content.

CAPUT XLVI.

How Almighty God worked a wonder.

I had made a cross of reed, and had raised it in front of the hut wherein I was. At this I oftentimes made my prayers to the Lord, and I had commanded the savages that they should not pull it up, for misfortune might ensue therefrom. But they heeded not my words. At a time when I was out with them fishing, a woman had torn up the cross, and had given it to her husband, who was to rub thereon a kind of Paternoster, which they make from snail shells, because it was round. This grieved me sorely, and soon after it began to rain very hard, and to blow for several days. They came to my but, and demanded that I should intercede with my God, that the rain might be stayed, for if it did not stop it would prevent their planting, and their time for planting had come. I said it was their fault, they had angered my God, by having torn up the piece of wood for by that piece of wood I was in the habit of holding discourse with my God. Now when they thought this the cause of the rain, my master’s son helped me to erect another cross. It was, judging by the sun, about one hour after noon. When it was erected, the weather, which had been very stormy before mid-day, from that hour became fine. They marvelled all, and thought that my God did whatever I wished.

CAPUT XLVII.

How, one evening, I was out fishing with two savages, and God did a
wonder through me, during a great rain and thunderstorm.

I stood with one who was also a chief. Ha was called Parwaa, and he had roasted Hieronymus. The same, with another and myself, stood and fished at close of day, when it began to rain hard, with thunder, and it rained not far from us, so that the wind brought the rain towards us. Then the two savages begged me to speak with my God, that the rain might not prevent us from the chance of catching more fish; for I was well aware that we had nothing in the huts to eat. These words touched me, and I begged the Lord from the depth of my heart that he would, through me, show his might. The savages demanded it from me (I said), “Therefore (grant) that they may always see how thou, my God, art at all times with me.” When I had ended the prayer, the wind and rain came rushing on, and rained within about six paces from us, and at the spot whereon we stood, we felt none. So the savage, Parwaa, said, “Now I see that thou hast spoken with thy God,” and we caught several fishes.

When we came to the huts, the two told the other savages that I had spoken with my God, and that such and such things had come to pass, whereat the others wondered.

CAPUT XLVIII.

How they ate the other of the two roasted Christians, named
Hieronymus.

Now when the savage Parwaa had ended all preparations, as before stated, he caused drinks to be made, wherewith to make merry over the flesh of Hieronymus. And whilst they were drinking, they brought the two brothers to me, and also another, by name Anthonio, whom my master’s son had captured. They were four Christians together, and we were obliged to drink with them; but before we would drink we made our prayers to God, that he would be merciful to the soul of Hieronymus, and also to us when our hour might come. And the savages gibbered with us, and were merry, but we felt great misery. The next morning early they recooked the flesh and ate it, and swallowed it in a very short time. The same day they took me off to be given away. Now when I parted from the two brothers, they begged that I would pray to God for them, and I gave them information, in case they could escape, as to which direction they were to take over the mountains, so as to be safe from being tracked, for I was acquainted with the mountains. This they also did, as I afterwards learned, for they got loose and escaped. If they were recaptured I know it not to this day.

CAPUT XLIX.

How they led me off to be given away.

They sailed with me to the place where they purposed giving me away, called Tackwara sutibi. And when we were some distance from the shore, I looked round at the huts from which we had sailed, and there was a black cloud over them. I pointed it out, and said that my God was angry with the village, for having eaten of the Christian flesh, etc. Now when they had taken me there, they delivered me to a king called Abbati Bossange, and they told him that he was to do me no harm, nor allow any to be done to me, for my God was terrible to those who did me evil. For this they had seen during the time I had been with them. And I also admonished him, saying, that soon my brother and friends would come with a ship full of wares, that they were only to take good care of me, for then I would give them wares; and that I knew full well, how my God would soon conduct thither my brother’s ships. This pleased them greatly. The king called me (his) son, and I went out hunting with his sons.

CAPUT L.

How the savages of the said place told me that the aforesaid ship from
France had sailed away again.

They told me how the former ship, Maria Bellete by name, from Dieppe, and which I had so much wished to join, had there taken in the rest of her cargo, namely, Brazil-wood, red pepper, cotton, featherwork, baboons, parrots, and such goods as were wanted at the former place, and that they had in the harbour of Rio de Jenero captured a Portuguese ship, and had given one of the Portuguese to a savage king, named Ita Wu, who had eaten him. Also I learned that the Frenchman, who, when I was captured, had ordered the savages to eat me, was in the ship, and was returning home, and that it was the same ship which, when I ran away from the savages, and swam to their boat, would not receive me on board. That ship was lost on the return voyage, for when I arrived with the other vessel in France, nobody had heard what had become of her, as will be seen further on.

CAPUT LI.

How shortly after that I had been given away there, another ship arrived
from France, called the Katharina de Vattavilla, which, through
the providence of God, brought me away, and how this happened.

I had been about a fortnight in the village Tackwara sutibi with the king Abbati Bossange, when it happened one day that some savages came to me, and said that they had heard a firing, which must be at Iteronne, the harbour also called Rio de Jenero. Hearing with certainty that a ship was there, I told them that they were to take me to it, as, probably, my brothers would be there. They said “yes,” and, nevertheless, detained me several days longer.

Meanwhile it happened that the Frenchmen who had arrived there, heard that I was still among the savages. The captain sent two men belonging to the ship, who, together with several savage kings, whom they had for friends in the place where I was, came to a hut, the king of which was called Sowarasu, close to the hut wherein I was. The news was brought to me by the savages, that two men from the ship had arrived there. I was overjoyed, and went to them and bade them welcome in the savage tongue. When they saw me in such wretched plight, they had pity upon me, and divided their garments with me. I asked them why they had come, they answered, on my account, as they had been commanded to take me to the ship, and to effect this they were to use every means. Then my heart rejoiced at the mercy of God. And I said to the one of the two who was named Perot, and who knew the language of the savages, that he was to feign the following: – He was to be my brother, and he had brought me several cases full of merchandise, that they might take me with them to the ship to fetch the cases. And he was to make believe, that I would remain among them, and collect pepper and other produce, until the ships returned next year. Upon these pretexts they took me to the ship, my master going with me himself. All in the vessel had much pity on me, and treated me very kindly. Now when we had been about five days in the ship, the savage king Abbati Bossange, to whom I bad been given, asked me where the cases were, that I was to demand them to be given to me, and that we might return home betimes. This demand I repeated to the ship captain, who instructed me to put him off until the vessel had its full cargo, in case they should become angry, and attempt to give us trouble, seeing that I was kept in the ship, or should work us some other treachery, since it is a people in whom none can confide. But as my master the king wanted positively to take me home with him, I detained him long with words, and told him not to hurry so much, for he knew well that when good friends came together, they could not part again so quickly; when, however, they were about again to sail away in the ship, we would also return to our huts. In this manner I put him off.

At last, when the vessel was well laden, the Frenchmen in the ship all assembled together, and I stood near them, and my master the king, together with those whom he had with him, also stood there. And the captain caused the savages to be told through his interpreter, how he was much pleased that they had not killed me, after having caught me among their enemies. And he caused them further to be told (in order to take me away from them in a more gentle manner), that he had in this way ordered me to be brought from the land to the ship, so that he might give them something for having taken such good care of me, and that it was also his intention to give me some wares, and let me remain among them till his return, because I was known by them, and collect together pepper, and other goods that he wanted.

Now we had in such wise planned, that about ten sailors, who in some degree resembled me, should come together and state they were my brothers, and wanted to carry me home with them. This wish was taken into consideration; my said brothers would in no way consent that I should again go on shore with them, but they declared that I should return home, for our father wished to see me once more before he died. Then the captain caused them to be told that he was the captain of the ship, and was desirous that I should go back with them on shore, but that as he was only one man, and my brothers were many, he could not do anything against them. These pretexts were all made in order to part on good terms with the savages. And I also told my master the king that I should be glad to go home with them, but that he saw well my brothers would not consent. Then he went weeping about the ship, and said, if thee they really wanted to take me with them, I was to return with the first ship, for he had considered me as his son, and was very angry with those of Uwattibi, for having wanted to eat me.

And one of his wives, who was with him on board the ship, had to cry over me after their custom, and I also cried according to their usage. After all this, the captain gave him sundry goods, which might amount to some five ducats in value, knives, hatchets, looking-glasses, and combs. Therewith they proceeded again on shore to their home.

In such manner did the Almighty Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, help me out of the hands of these tyrants (barbarians); to Him be praise, honour, and glory, through Jesus Christ his dear Son, our Saviour. Amen.

CAPUT LII.

How the officers of the ship were named, and where the ship came from
and what yet happened before we sailed out of the harbour, and
how long we were on our voyage to France.

The captain of the ship was called Wilhelm de Moner, and the mate, Françoy de Schantz. The ship was called the Catharina de Wattanilla, etc. They rigged the ship again to sail to France, when it happened that one morning, while we were still in the harbour called (Rio de Jenero), a small Portuguese ship came by, sailing out of the harbour. It had been trading with a tribe of savages, whom they have for friends, called Los Markayas, whose country is bounded by the country of the Tuppin Ikins, whom the French have as friends. These two nations are great enemies.

And this was the ship, which (as before stated), was sent after me, to purchase me from the savages, and it belonged to a factor called Peter Rösen. The Frenchmen armed their boat with firearms, and sailed up to them, intending to take them; they also took me with them, that I might tell them to surrender. But when we attacked the ship, they beat us back again; some Frenchmen were shot, others were wounded, and I also was wounded by a shot to near death, and much more severely than any of those wounded who still lived again. I called in my anguish to my Lord, for I felt nothing else than the agony of death, and implored the merciful Father, that as He had saved me from the hands of the heathen. He might grant me my life, and restore me to Christian countries, where I might proclaim to mankind His mercies vouchsafed unto me. And I regained complete health. Praised be the merciful God from eternity to eternity.

On the last day of October, Anno Domini I554, we sailed out of the harbour of Rio de Jenero, and again made for France. We had fair winds at sea, so that the sailors wondered, and thought it must be a special gift of God (as it also was). Even so, the Lord did a visible wonder by us on the sea.

On Christmas eve, there came about the ship many fish, which are called porpoises; of these, we caught such a number, that we had enough victual for some days. In the same manner, on the eve of the day of the Three Holy Kings (Epiphany), God also bestowed an abundance of fish upon us; for there remained, at that time, but little else for us to eat, save what God gave us from the sea. Thereupon, about the 20th day of February, of the year 1555, we arrived in the kingdom of France, at a small city called Honflor, situated in Normandy. During the whole return-voyage we saw no land for nearly four months. I assisted them in discharging the vessel, and when that was done, I thanked them all for the kindness shown me. Thereupon, I requested a passport from the captain; but be would much rather that I made another voyage with him. When, however, he saw that I would not stay, he obtained a passport from Moensoral Miranth, the Governor of Normandy. The same, when he had heard of me, ordered me before him, and handed me the passport, whilst my captain gave me my viaticum (travelling means). I took my leave and proceeded from Henfloer to Hebelnoeff, and from Hebelnoeff to Depen.

CAPUT LIII.

How, at Depen, I was taken to the house of the captain of the “Bellete”
(the house-owner being absent on his command), which had sailed
before us from Brazil, and had not yet arrived.

It was from Depen that came the former ship, “Maria Bellete”, in which was the interpreter who had commanded the savages to eat me, and in which he intended returning to France. In it also were those who would not take me into the boat when I escaped from the savages, also the same ship-captain, who, as the savages told me, had given them a Portuguese to be eaten. For they had taken a ship from the Portuguese, as before stated.

The said crew of the “Bellete” had not yet arrived with the vessel when I came there; although, according to the reckoning of the ship “Wattuuilla”, which arrived out there after them, and which brought me back, they should have returned home three months before us. The wives and relations of the said crews came to me, and asked me if I had not seen them, I said, “Indeed, I have seen them; there are, in the ship, some godless men, be they who they may”. Then I recounted to them, how one who was in the vessel had commanded the savages to eat me; but Almighty God had protected me; and I told them further, how they had been with their boat near the huts wherein I was, and had bartered pepper and monkeys from the savages; but that when I had run away, and had swum off to those in the boat, they would not take me in, and I was therefore obliged to swim back to shore among the wild men, which at that time was a terrible sorrow to me. Also, that they had given to the savages a Portuguese, whom they had eaten; and I told them how they would show no mercy unto me. By all this I now well see my beloved God meant so well by me, that I, praise be to God, am here before you, to bring you the newest tidings. Let them come when they like. But I will be a prophet to you, that God will not suffer such unmerciful cruelty and want of pity, as they showed me in that country (may God forgive it them!), to remain unpunished, whether sooner or later; for it was evident that my sighs had moved God in Heaven to pity. I told them further, how well it had gone, during the voyage, with those who had bought me from the savages, which was also the truth. God sent us fine weather and wind, and gave us fish from the depths of the sea.

They lamented greatly, and asked what I thought about it, and whether it was not possible that they might still be living. In order not to make them too disconsolate, I said that they may possibly still return; although most people, and I also, could not suppose otherwise, but that they must have perished with the ship.

After all these discourses I parted from them, and said that they were to inform the others, if they arrived, how God had helped me, as I had been there.

From Depen I sailed with a ship to London, in England, where I remained several days. Thereafter, I voyaged from London to Seeland, from Seeland to Antdorff. In such wise has Almighty God, to whom all things are possible helped me back again to my fatherland. To Him be praise for ever! Amen.

My prayer to God, the Lord, whilst I was in the power of the savages, who purposed to eat me:

“O Thou omnipotent one. Thou who hast created heaven and earth. Thou God of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Thou who hast so mightily led Thy people Israel out of the hands of their enemies, through the Red Sea, Thou who hast preserved Daniel among the lions; to Thee I pray. Thou eternal power, that Thou mayest deliver me out of the hands of these tyrants, who know Thee not, for Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son’s sake, who delivered us prisoners from eternal captivity. But, Lord, if it be Thy will that I should suffer so cruel a death at the hands of these people who know Thee not, and say, when I speak to them of Thee, that Thou hast no might to deliver me out of their hands, then strengthen me in the last hour, when they fulfil their intentions on me, that I may not doubt of Thy mercy.

“And as I shall in this misery suffer so much, so grant me hereafter peace, and preserve me ever from the future torments, of which all our forefathers have been fearful. But, blessed God, Thou canst well deliver me out of their power, help me, I know full well Thou canst help me, and when Thou hast delivered me, I wilt attribute it to no mere fortune, but to Thy helping mighty hand only, for now no human power can save me. And when Thou hast helped me out of their power, I will praise Thy mercy, and proclaim it among all nations to whom I may go. Amen.”

I cannot well believe, that from his heart a man can pray,
Unless that risk and crosses and great trials haunt his way;
For when the body liveth as it wills to live, and thrives.
The wretched creature all its days against its Maker strives.
Therefore, to him whom God vouchsafed to tempt with tribulation,
He alltimes means that it shall end by bringing true salvation.
Thereof let no man ever doubt.
Thus gifts by God are brought about.

No comfort, weapon, shield, is found to man at any time,
But who alone is armed with faith and God’s own word divine.
Therefore, O each and every man of true God-fearing heart,
Unto thy sons no better gift than this thou canst impart;
Than willingly the Word of God to read and comprehend;
For thus in time of sorest need thereon they may depend.

Therefore, dear reader, think not fit on me to cast the blame,
That I have done this work of mine for aught of earthly fame,
‘Tis done in God Almighty’s love, in honour and in praise,
Who knows the hearts of mortal men, their thoughts and all their ways.
To Him, dear reader, I commend thee:
May He protect, and so defend me.

END OF THE FIRST PART.

PART THE SECOND.

A VERITABLE AND SHORT ACCOUNT

Of all the by me experienced manners and customs of the
TUPPIN IMBAS, whose prisoner I was.

They live in America; their country is situated in 24 degrees on
the south side of the equinoctial line, and their country
is bounded by a river called Rio de Jenero.

PART THE SECOND.

CAPUT I.

How the voyage is made from Portugal to Rio de Jenero, situated in
America, in about 24 degrees of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Lissebona is a city in Portugal, situated in 39 degrees to the north of the equinoctial line. In order to sail from Lisbona to the province of Rio de Jenero, in the country of Brazil, which is also called America, the islands called the Canaries, belonging to the King of Spain, have first to be reached. Six of them are here named. The first – Grand Canaria; the next, Lanserutta; the third, Forte Ventura; the fourth, Il Ferro; the fifth, La Palma; the sixth, Tineriffe. Thence to the islands, called Los Insules de Cape Virde; that is to say, the Islands of the Green Headland, which green headland lies in the country of the black Moors, also called the land of Gene. The said islands lie under the Tropic of Cancer, and belong to the King of Portugal. From the islands, the direction sailed is south-south-west, to the country of Brazil, and it is a great wide ocean; often three months long and more are sailed, before the country is reached. First, the Tropic of Cancer is passed, so that it remains behind. Then, through the linea Æquinoctialis; and, upon leaving the north side behind, the north star, which they also call Polum articum, is no longer seen. After this, the height of the Tropic of Capricorn is reached, and one sails along under the sun. And when the height of the Tropic of Capricorn is passed, after midday the sun is seen down in a northerly direction. There is always great heat between the two tropics, and the above-mentioned country, Brazil, lies partly within the tropics.

CAPUT II.

How the country, America, such as I have partly seen, is situated.

America is a great country, inhabited by many tribes of savage people, who show much difference in language, and there are in it many strange animals. The land is joyful to behold, the trees are at all times green; it has no wood that resembles the wood of this country, and the people go naked. It is in the part of the world which lies between the Tropics, and at no time of the year is the cold so great as it is here at Michaelmas. But that part of the country which lies south of the Tropic of Capricorn is rather colder. In it live the tribe of savages called Carios, who use skins of animals, which they delicately prepare, to clothe themselves with; the women of the said savages make things of cotton-wool yarn, like a sack underneath and open above; these they draw on, and call in their language Typpoy. There are in this country many fruits of the earth and of the trees, on which man and beast live. The people are coloured reddish-brown, on account of the sun, which burns their bodies. They are a well-shaped race, cunning in all malice, much inclined to pursue their enemies, and to eat them, etc. Their country, America, is several hundred miles (leagues) long from north to south, of which I have sailed along the coast about five hundred, and I have been at many places in the interior.

CAPUT III.

Of a great chain of mountains which is in the country.

There is a chain of mountains, which may reach to within about three miles of the sea, in some places it is further off, also it lies sometimes nearer, and it begins in about the latitude of the Boiga de Todolos Sanctuss, a place so called where the Portuguese have built a city, and live. And the said chain extends along the sea fully 204 miles; and in 29 degs. latitude, on the south side of the equinoctial line, the mountains at places end, where the distance from the sea is eight miles. Behind the highlands lies similar land. Many fine rivers flow from amongst the mountains, and in them there is much game. Among these highlands is a savage tribe called the Wayganna, who have no fixed dwelling-places like the others, and who live before and behind (i.e., on both sides of) the mountains. These same Wayganna make war against all the other tribes, and when they can capture them they eat them. In like manner they are also done to by the others. They follow the game into the highlands; they are clever at shooting it with the bow, and they show much ingenuity in other things, such as slings and traps, wherein they catch game.

There is also in the mountains much wild honey, which they eat. They invariably learn the cries of animals and the songs of birds, in order the more easily to creep up to and shoot them.

They kindle their fire with two pieces of wood, as also do the other savages. Usually they roast the flesh, which they eat. They travel, taking with them wife and children.

When they encamp anywhere near their enemies’ country, they make hedges close around their huts, so that they cannot be suddenly surprised; also partly on account of wild animals. Moreover, they place sharp thorns (called Maragaeibe Ju) round about the huts, even as we here plant foothooks; this they do from fear of their enemies. The whole night they keep up a fire near them, and when day breaks they put it out, so that no one may see the smoke and track them.

The head-hair they wear long; they also allow their fingernails to grow. They have rattles, called Maracka, like the other savages; these they consider as gods; they have their drinks and their dances, and teeth of wild animals wherewith they cut. They chop with stone wedges, as did the other tribes before they had traded with the ships.

They also often fall upon their enemies when they want to capture them, and they sit down behind dry wood, which stands near the hostile huts. This they do, so that if any come out of the huts to fetch wood they may capture them.

They also behave more cruelly to their enemies than their enemies do to them; for example, they often cut their arms and legs off when alive, to show their great hatred. The others, however, first strike their dead before they cut them up to be eaten.

CAPUT IV.

What the dwellings of the Tuppin Imba savages, whose prisoner I was,
are like.

They have their dwelling-places in front of the above-mentioned great chain of mountains, close to the sea; they also extend for some sixty miles (leagues) behind the range; and out of the mountains a river flows into the sea, whose banks in one place they inhabit, and which they called the Paraeibe. Along the sea-coast they have about twenty- eight miles (leagues) of ground, which they occupy, and they are on all sides surrounded by enemies. Northwards they are bounded by a savage tribe called Weittaka, who are their foes; on the south, their enemies are called Tuppin Ikin; landwards, their enemies are the Karaya; then the Wayganna, in the mountains close to them; and yet another tribe called Markaya, who live between them. By these they are much persecuted. The before-mentioned tribes also make war upon one another, and when any of them take a prisoner, they eat him.

They prefer erecting their dwellings in spots where they are not far from wood and water, nor from game and fish. After they have destroyed all in one district, they migrate to other places; and when they want to build their huts, a chief among them assembles a party of men and women (some forty couples), or as many as he can get, and these live together as friends and relations.

They build a kind of hut, which is about fourteen feet wide, and perhaps a hundred and fifty feet long, according to their number. The tenements are about two fathoms high, and round at the top like a vaulted cellar; they thatch them thickly with palm leaves, so that it may not rain therein, and the hut is all open inside. No one has his specially-prepared chamber; each couple, man and woman, has a space of twelve feet on one side; whilst on the other, in the same manner, lives another pair. Thus their huts are full, and each couple has its own fire. The chief of the huts has also his lodging within the dwelling. They all have commonly three entrances, one on each side, and one in the middle; these are low, so that they must stoop when they go in and out. Few of their villages have more than seven huts. They leave between their abodes a space wherein they kill their prisoners. They are also in the habit of making, round about their villages, forts which are as follows: they plant a palisade, made of split palm trees; this stockade may be about a fathom and a half high, and is so thick that no arrow can penetrate it; small holes are pierced therein, from out of which they shoot arrows. And outside of the stockade they make yet another of great high rails; but they plant them not close together, only so that a man cannot creep through. And some of them are wont to place the heads of those whom they have eaten on the rail, before the entrance to the huts.

CAPUT V.

How they make fire.

They have a kind of wood, called Urakueiba, which they dry, and then they take two sticks of it, a finger thick, and rub one upon the other, till it produces dust, and the heat resulting from the rubbing lights the dust. Therewith they make fire.

CAPUT VI.

The places wherein they sleep.

They sleep in things called in their language Inni, and made of cotton-wool; these they tie to two posts above the ground, and constantly have fire near them at night. They also do not willingly, for any purpose, leave their huts during the dark hours without fire, so much are they afraid of the devil, whom they call Ingange, and often see.

CAPUT VII.

How skilful they are in shooting wild animals and fish with arrows.

Wherever they go, be it to the wood or near the water, they always have with them their bows and arrows. When they pass through the forest, they look straight up at the trees, now and again. Whenever they hear any noise of large birds, monkeys, or other animals that inhabit trees, they go thither, and try to shoot them, and they follow until they get something. It is seldom, when one of them is out in the chase, that he returns empty-handed.

In like manner they pursue fishing close to the shores of the sea. They have keen sight; and, whenever a fish jumps, they shoot at it; few of their shots miss. As soon as one is hit, they jump into the water, and swim after it. Some large fish, when they feel the arrow within them, go down to the bottom; after these they dive well nigh six fathoms deep, and bring them up.

Besides this, they also have small nets; the thread wherewith they knit them is drawn from long leaves, which they call Tokauns. And when they wish to fish with nets, several of them assemble, each taking his own station in a place where the water is not deep. Then some of them form a ring, and beat the water; the fishes dive deep, and come in such manner to their nets. He who catches the most divides it with the others.

Often, also, come down those who live far from the sea, catch many fish, bake them hard, pound them, and make thereof powder, which they dry well, that it may last a long time. This they take home with them, and eat with root-meal; for, otherwise should they carry the fish home with them baked, it would not last long, as they do not salt it; also does this powder occupy less space than fishes could whole.

CAPUT VIII.

What appearance the people have.

They are a race of well-made body and figure, both women and men, like the people of this country, only that they are brown from the sun; for they all, young and old, go naked; also they wear nothing over their sexual organs, and they disguise themselves with painting. They have no beards; for they pull the hair out by the roots whenever it grows, and they pierce holes in the mouth and ears, wherein they hang stones, that are their jewels, and they deck themselves with feathers.

CAPUT IX.

Wherewith they hew and cut, as they can obtain no Christian tools,
such as axes, knives, and scissors.

They had formerly, and before ships came to the country, and they have still in many parts of the country, where no vessels arrive, a kind of blackish-blue stone, fashioned like a wedge. The widest part they make tolerably sharp; it may be about a span long, two fingers thick, and of a hand’s breadth. Some are large, others small. Then they take a thin reed, and bend it about the head of it, tying it firmly with bast.

The iron wedges which the Christiana give them in several places have the same shape. But now they make the handle in another way: a hole therein, through which they insert the wedge. This is the axe with which they hew.

They also take the teeth of wild hogs, and grind them to make them sharp, and then tie them between two small sticks. Therewith they scrape their bows and arrows, so that they become round as if they were turned.

They also use the tooth of an animal called Pacca; this they grind sharp at the point, and when they have bodily ailments produced by the blood, they scratch themselves in the place which hurts them. It then bleeds, and such is their cupping.

CAPUT X.

What their bread is, how their fruits are called, how they plant them,
and prepare them to be eaten.

In those places where they intend to plant they cut down trees, and leave them for about three mouths to dry, then they light fire among them and burn them. After this they plant their roots between the trunks, from which the former derive support; they are called Mandioka, which is a tree about a fathom in height, giving out three roots. When they want to eat of the roots, they pull up the tree, and break off the roots; then they break off twigs from the stem, and stick them again into the earth. These put forth roots, and in three months become so large as to be eatable. They prepare these roots in three different ways.

Firstly, they rub them upon a stone, into small crumbs, and then they press off the juice with a thing made of hollow palm trees, called Tippiti, in such manner, that it becomes dry; afterwards they rub it through a sieve; and, lastly, they bake, with the meal, thin cakes. The utensil in which they dry and bake the meal is of burnt clay, shaped like a large dish.

They also take the roots fresh, and put them in water, leaving them to rot therein; then they remove them and place them above the fire in the smoke, allowing them to dry. The root thus dried they call Keinrima, and it keeps a long time. When they want to use it, they pound it in a mortar made of wood, when it becomes white like com-flour, therefrom they make cakes called Byyw.

They also take rotten mandioka before they dry it, and mix it with the dry and the green. From this they prepare and dry out a meal, which lasts fully a year, and which can be eaten as it is. They call this meal Vy-than.

They also make meal from fish and flesh, and do it in this way: they roast the flesh or fish above the fire in the smoke, and they allow it to become quite dry; then they pull it to pieces, dry it once again on the fire in pots called Yueppaun. Thereupon they pound it small in a wooden mortar, and they pass it through a sieve, reducing it in such manner to powder. This lasts a long time; for they have not the custom of salting fish and meal. Such meal they eat with the root-meal, and it tastes pretty well.

CAPUT XI.

How they cook their food.

There are many tribes of savages who eat no salt. Some of those amongst whom I was a captive ate salt, of which they had learnt the use from the Frenchmen, who trade with them. But they informed me how the people of an island tribe called the Karaya, whose country is bounded by theirs, made salt from palm trees, and ate the same, but that those who eat much thereof did not live long. And they prepare it in this manner; for I saw it, and helped to do it. Having felled a thick palm tree, they split it into small splinters; then they make a stand of dry wood, lay the splinters thereon, and burn them to ashes, from which they make lye, and this they boil till the salt separates from it. I thought it would have been saltpetre, and tried it in the fire, but it was not; it tasted like salt, and it was of gray colour. But the majority of the tribes eat no salt. When they boil anything, be it fish or flesh, they generally add green pepper thereto, and when it is pretty well done they lift it out of the broth, and make with it a thin pap, which they call Mingau. They drink it out of calabashes, which they have for vessels. Also, when they want to cook any food, flesh or fish, which is to last some time, they put it four spans high above the fire-place, upon rafters, and make a moderate fire underneath, leaving it in such manner to roast and smoke, until it becomes quite dry. When they afterwards would eat thereof, they boil it up again and eat it, and such meat they call Mockaein.

CAPUT XII.

What kind of regimen and order they have in government and laws.

They have no particular government or laws; each hut has a head-man, who is their king. For all their chiefs are of one tribe, one command and authority; thus they can do whatever they will. One may perhaps be more experienced than the other in war, so that in this way, when they go to war, more deference is shown to him than to the others. Such was the before-mentioned Konyan Bebe. Otherwise, I have observed no particular authority among them, than that the youngest observe obedience to the eldest, as their custom is.

Whenever one slays or shoots the other, the friends are ready in return to kill him, although this seldom happens. They also obey the chiefs of the huts, in what they order: this is done without any compulsion or fear, but from goodwill only.

CAPUT XIII.

How they bake the pots and vessels that they use.

Their women make in this way the vessels which they use. They take clay and reduce it to mud, wherefrom they make whatever utensils they want. They leave it some time to dry, and they know how to paint it ornamentally. And when they want to burn these pots they tilt them up upon stones, and then they put over them a quantity of dry tree-rind; they light this, and herewith the pots become so baked that they glow like hot iron.

CAPUT XIV.

How they make their beverages wherewith they drink themselves drunk,
and how they order their drinking.

The womankind make the drinks; they take the mandioca root, and they boil great jars full. When it is boiled they take it out of the jars, pour it into other pots or vessels, and allow it to get cool. Then the young girls sit down to it, and chew it in their months, and the chewed stuff they put into a separate vessel.

When the boiled roots are all chewed, they put the stuff again into the pots, and once more fill them with water. This they stir up with the chewed roots, and then again they heat it.

They have especial vessels, which are half buried in the ground, and they use them like we here do as casks for wine or beer. Into these they pour the chewed stuff, and close it up well; it then ferments by itself, and becomes strong. They allow it in such manner to stand for two days, then they drink it and become drunk therewith. It is thick, but of agreeable flavour.

Each hut makes its own drink. And when a village wants to make merry with it, which generally happens once a month, the men first go all together to one hut and drink out there. This is so carried on in succession, until they have drunk out the drink in all the huts.

They sit around the vessels from which they drink. The women help them to the liquor in due order; some stand, sing, and dance around the vessels; and, on the spot where they drink, they also void off their wine.

The drinking lasts through the whole night; they also dance between the fires, shout, and blow trumpets; they make a terrible noise when they wax drunk. They are rarely seen to become quarrelsome. They also behave generously to one another; whatever food one of them has more than his neighbour, that he divides with him.

CAPUT XV.

What are the ornaments of the men, and how they paint themselves,
and what their names are.

They make a tonsure upon their heads, allowing a small cross (crown) of hair about it, like a monk. I have often asked them whence they took this form of cultivating the hair. They said that their forefathers had seen it on a man, who was called Meire Humane, and who had done many wonderful things among them; for he is supposed to have been a prophet or an apostle.

Further, I asked them wherewith they had been able to cut off the hair before the ships had brought them scissors. They said that they had taken a stone implement, had held another implement underneath, and upon this they struck off the hair; then they made the tonsure in the middle with a scraper, a transparent stone, which they used much for shearing purposes. Further, they have a thing made of red feathers, called “kannitare”; this they bind around the head.

They also have in the nether lip a large hole, which they make from early youth. When they are still young a little hole is pricked through with a pointed deer-horn; in this they stick a small stone or a piece of wood, and they then grease it with their salves. The hole thus remains open. Now, when they are big enough to bear arms it is made larger for them; for then they insert therein a large green stone. This is so shaped, that the narrow end above comes to hang inside the lips, and the thick one outside. And their lips at all times hang down from the weight of the stone. They also have on both sides of the mouth, on either cheek, another small stone.

Some have them of crystal, which are small but long. And also they wear an ornament, which they make out of large snail-shells; these they call Mattepue. It is made like a crescent, to hang round the neck, and it is snow-white; they call it Bogessy.

They also make from shells white necklaces, which they hang round their necks; these are about the thickness of a straw; they have much trouble in fashioning them.

They also tie feather plumes to their arms, and paint themselves black, also with red and white plumes, gaily mixed, and the feathers they stick on to the body with gum taken from trees. This they spread on the places where they want to feather themselves. They also daub (with gum) the feathers, which then stick on. And they paint one arm black and the other red; the legs and the body are treated in like manner.

They also have an ornament made of ostrich plumes, which is a large round thing of feathers; this they tie to their posteriors, when they set forth to war against their enemies, or otherwise when they make a feast. It is called Enduap.

They call themselves after wild animals, and they give themselves many names, but yet with this difference. At first, when they are born, a name is given, which they keep only until they become capable of bearing arms and of killing enemies. As many foes as a man has killed, so many names does he take.

CAPUT XVI.

What the women’s ornaments are.

The women paint themselves under the eyes, and over the whole body, also in the before-mentioned manner, as the men paint themselves. But they allow the hair to grow long, like other women. They have no particular ornaments, except in the ears where they drill holes, in which they hang objects about a span long, round, and about the thickness of a thumb, called in their language Mambibeya. These are also made of shells, called Mattepue.

Their names are called after those of birds, fishes, and tree-fruits. They have from youth but one name; but as many prisoners as the husbands kill, so many names the women give themselves. When one picks lice from the others, she eats the lice. I have often asked them why they did this. They said, that they were their enemies, who eat their heads, and that they would be revenged on them.

There are also no regular midwives. When a woman is in child-birth, whoever is nearest, man or woman, runs up to her. I have seen them go about on the fourth day after they had brought forth.

They carry their children on the back, in slings made of cotton-wool, and do their work with them. The children sleep, and are well satisfied, however much they (the mothers) stoop and move about with them.

CAPUT XVII.

How they give the child its first name.

One of the savages who helped me at work had a son born to him by his wife. Some days afterwards he called together his nearest neighbours in the huts, and consulted with them what name that was valiant and terrible he should give the child. They proposed to him many names, which did not quite please him. He thought that he would give it the name of one of four forefathers, and said that the children who bore those names throve well, and became cunning at catching slaves. He then named the four forefathers the first was called Krunen, the other Hermittan, the third Koem, the fourth I have not retained. I thought when he spoke of Koem, that it must be Cham (Ham). But Koem means, in their language, the morning. I told him that he was to give him this name, for the same had no doubt been that of one of his forefathers. One of these names the child kept. In such manner they give their children names, without baptism or circumcision.

CAPUT XVIII.

How many wives each of them has, and how he manages them.

The greater part among them have one wife, but some of them more. Several of their kings have thirteen or fourteen wives. The king, called Abbati Bossange, to whom I was the last time presented, and from whom the Frenchmen bought me, had many wives, and she who had been his first was the principal among them. Each had her own lodging in the huts, her own fire, and her own root-plantations. That one with whom he cohabited, and in whose lodging he stayed, gave him food. This went round in such manner: the children which they have, when they are boys, and are growing up, are taught the chase, and what they bring in each gives to his mother, who cooks it, and then divides it among the others. The women agree well together. They also have the custom of one presenting the other with a wife if he be tired of her. They also sometimes present one another with their daughters and sisters.

CAPUT XIX.

How they are betrothed.

They betroth their daughters when they are still young, and when they grow up and arrive at puberty they cut the hair from their heads, scratch peculiar marks into their backs and tie several teeth of wild animals round their necks. Thereupon, when the hair has grown again, and the incisions are healed, one nevertheless still sees the scars of the cuts; for they put something therein that may remain black when they are healed. This is held as a great honour.

When such ceremonies are ended, they deliver the maiden up to him who is to have her, without any further ceremony. Men and women also conduct themselves decently, and slee with one another privately.

Further, I have also seen that one of their chiefs went in the early morning through all the huts, and scratched the children’s legs with a sharp fish-tooth, in order to intimidate them: so that, should they become unmanageable, the parents might threaten them, that the said chief would come, the better to keep them quiet.

CAPUT XX.

What are their chief valuables.

There is no community of goods among them: also they know nothing of money. Their treasures are birds’ feathers, of which he who has many is rich; and he who wears his stones in the lips of his mouth, is also one of the richest.

Each couple, consisting of man and woman, have their own plantation of roots, whereof they eat.

CAPUT XXI.

What their greatest honours are.

They hold in honour him who has captured and slain many enemies. For this is customary among them, so many enemies as one of them slays, so many names does he give himself. And those are the noblest among them who have many such names.

CAPUT XXII.

What they believe in.

They believe in a thing which grows, like a pumpkin, about the size of a half-quart pot. It is hollow inside; they pass through it a stick, cut a hole in it like a mouth, and put therein small stones, so that it may rattle. Herewith they rattle when they sing and dance, and call it Tammaraka.

Of these, each of the men has one of his own. Now, there are among them some who are called Paygi; these are esteemed among them as fortune-tellers are here. The same travel through the country once a year to all the huts, and assert that a spirit had been with them, who came from foreign places far off, and had given them the power to cause all the Tammaraka (rattles), which they selected, to speak and to become so powerful as to grant whatever was supplicated from them. Everyone then desires that this power might come to his own rattle. Upon this they make a great feast, with drinking, singing, and soothsaying, and they perform many curious ceremonies. The soothsayers thereupon appoint a day in a hut, which they cause to be vacated, no women or children being allowed to remain therein. Then the soothsayers command that each shall paint his Tammaraka red, ornament it with feathers, and proceed thither, and that the power of speech shall be conferred upon them. Hereupon they go to the hut, and the soothsayers place themselves at the head, and have their Tammaraka sticking close to them in the ground. The others then stick theirs also hard by: each one gives these jugglers presents, which are arrows, feathers, and ornaments, to hang to the ears; so that his Tammaraka may on no account be forgotten. Then, when they are all together, the soothsayer takes each man’s Tammaraka singly, and fumigates it with a herb, which they call Bittin. Then he places the rattle close to his mouth, and rattles therewith, saying to it: “Nee Kora, now speak, and make thyself heard, art thou therein?” Presently he speaks in a soft voice, and just a word or two, so that one cannot well perceive whether it is the rattle or he who speaks. And the other people believe that the rattle speaks; but the soothsayer does it himself. In such manner he proceeds with all the rattles, one after the other: each one then believes that his rattle contains great power. Thereupon, the soothsayers command them to go to war, and to capture enemies, for that the spirits in the Tammaraka desire to eat the flesh of slaves. Then they go forth to make war.

Now, when the soothsaying Paygi has made gods out of all the rattles, each one takes his rattle, calling it his dear son, builds for it a separate hut, wherein he places it, puts food before it, and demands from it everything that he wants, just as we pray to the true God. These are now their gods. Of that very God who created heaven and earth, they know nothing, they consider the heavens and the earth to have existed from eternity; and they know nothing particular about the creation of the world.

For they say, once there had been a great water, which had drowned their forefathers, some of whom had escaped in a canoe, and others on high trees. Which, I opine, must have been the Deluge.

Now, when I first came among them, and they told me thereof, I thought there was such a thing as a devil-spectre (evil spirit); for they had often told me how the rattles spoke. But when I went into the huts wherein were the soothsayers, who were to make them speak, they were all obliged to sit down; and, seeing the imposture, I went from out of the huts, thinking what an unfortunate beguiled people it was.

CAPUT XXIII.

How they make soothsayers of the women.

They first go into a hut and take all the women, one after the other, and fumigate them. After this, the women are made to yell and jump, and run about until they become so exhausted, that they fall on the ground, as if they were dead. Thereupon, the soothsayer says, “See, now she is dead; soon I will bring her to life again”! When she comes to herself, he says that she is now able to foretell future things; and when they go to war, the women must prophesy about the war.

One night the wife of my master (to whom I was presented to be killed) began to prophesy, and told her husband that a spirit had come to her from foreign lands, who demanded to know from her how soon I was to be killed, and asked after the club wherewith I was to be slain, and where it was. He answered her, it was not far off; all the preparations were ready; only, he inclined to think, that I was no Portuguese, but a Frenchman.

When the woman had finished her prediction, I asked her why she sought after my life, inasmuch as that I was no enemy; and whether she did not fear that my God would send her some plague, She said I was not to mind this, for they were foreign spirits, who wanted to have information about me. Of such ceremonies they have many.

CAPUT XXIV.

Wherein they sail on the water.

In the country is a species of tree called Yga Ywara: they separate its bark entire from the trunk, from top to bottom, making a stage for the purpose round abont the tree, in order to take it off completely.

Thereupon, they take the bark and carry it from the mountains to the sea; they heat it with fire, bend it high up in front and behind, lash two pieces of wood above it in the middle, so that it may not stretch: and thus they make canoes wherein thirty of them can sail forth to war. The bark is of the thickness of a thumb, about four feet wide and forty feet long: some are longer and others are shorter. These they paddle very quickly, and sail therein as far as they wish. When the sea becomes stormy, they draw up the canoes on the shore, until the weather becomes fine. They do not venture more thon two miles out to sea, but sail far along the coast.

CAPUT XXV.

Why one enemy eats the other.

They do this, not from hunger, but from great hatred and enmity, and when they are fighting, during war, one, impelled by great hatred, calls out to the other, “Dete Immeraya, Schermiuramme, heiwoe”; or, “May every misfortune come upon thee, my meat!” “De Kanga Yuca eypota kurine”; or, “This day I will yet break your head!” “Sche Innamme pepicke Reseagu”; or, “To revenge my friend’s death on thee, am I here!” “Yande soo, sche mocken Sera, Quora Ossorime Rire, etc.”; or, “Thy flesh shall this day, before the sun sets, be my roast!” All this they do from great enmity.

CAPUT XXVI.

How they make their plans, when they purpose carrying war into their
enemies’ country.

When they desire to carry war into their enemies’ country, their chiefs assemble, and deliberate how they will do it. This they then make known through all the huts, that they may arm themselves. And they name the fruit of some kind of tree, when it becomes ripe, (as the time) when they will set forth; for they have no denominations for year and day. They often determine a time for setting forth, when a kind of fish spawn, which are called Pratti in their language, and the spawning time they call Pirakaen. At such time they equip themselves with canoes and arrows, and with provisions of dry root-meal, which they call Vythan. Thereupon, they consult with the Pagy, the soothsayers, whether the victory will be on their side. These, then, probably say “Yes”; but they also command them to pay attention to the dreams which they dream of their enemies. If the greater number dream that they see the flesh of their enemies roasting, this means victory. But when they see their own flesh roasting, it bodes no good; they must remain at home. Now, when the dreams please them well, they make ready, brew much drink in all huts, and drink and dance with the Tammaraka idols, each one begging of his, that he may help him to capture an enemy. Then they sail away. When they come close upon their enemies’ country, their chiefs command them, on the eve of the day upon which they intend invading the enemies’ country, to recollect the dreams which they may dream during the night.

On one expedition, when I was with them, as we came close to their enemies’ country in the evening, when it was their intention to attack the foe during the next night, the chief went through the camp, and told them that they were to remember well the dreams which they would dream that night. He commanded further, that the young men should, when the day broke, shoot game and catch cattle. This was done; the chief had it cooked, and he then called together the other chiefs, who came before his hut. He made all sit down upon the ground, in a circle; food was given to them, and when they had eaten they recounted the dreams, so far as they pleased them, and then they danced for joy with the Tammaraka. They reconnoitre their enemies’ huts during the night, and attack in the morning, as the day breaks. When they capture one who is severely wounded, they at once kill him, and take the roasted flesh home with them. Those who are still sound they carry back alive, and afterwards they kill them in their huts. They attack with loud yells, trample hard upon the ground, and blow trumpets made of pumpkins. All have cords bound round them, wherewith to tie the enemies, and they adorn themselves with red feathers, so that they may know themselves from the others. They shoot rapidly, and they also cast on their enemies’ huts fiery arrows, wherewith to burn them. When one is wounded they have their specific herbs wherewith they heal the hurts.

CAPUT XXVII.

What their weapons are.

They have bows, and their arrow-heads are of bone, which they sharpen, and bind thereon. They also make them of the teeth of a fish, which is called Tibeset Tiberaun, which are caught in the sea. They also take cotton-wool, mix it with wax, tie it to the piles of the shafts, and set fire thereto; these are their burning arrows. They also make shields of the bark of trees, and others of wild beasts’ skins, and they bury sharp thorns like our foot-hooks (caltraps).

I have also heard from them, but did not see it, that when they wish to do so, they can, in this manner, drive their enemies from the forts with pepper, which grows there. They make great fires when the wind blows, and then they throw thereon a quantity of pepper: if the fumes were to strike into their huts, they would have to evacuate them. And I readily believe it, for I was once with the Portuguese, in a province of the country called Braunenbucke, as hereinbefore mentioned. There we remained, lying dry, with a ship in a river, for the flood had left us; and many savages came, thinking to take us, but they could not. Upon this they threw heaps of dry underwood between the ship and the shore, also intending to drive us away with pepper fumes, but they could not light the wood.

CAPUT XXVIII.

With what ceremonies they kill their enemies and eat them, and how
they proceed with them.

When they first bring their enemies home, the women and children beat them. Thereupon, they paint the captive with grey feathers, shaving his eyebrows from above his eyes; they dance about him, tie him securely that he may not escape them, and give him a woman, who takes care of him, and who also has intercourse with him. And when she becomes pregnant they bring up the child until it is full grown; after which, whenever they take it into their heads, they slay it and eat it. They give him plenty of food, keeping him in this manner for a time; they prepare everything; they make many pots, wherein they keep the drinks; they bake peculiar vessels, wherein they pat the compounds wherewith they paint him; they get ready feather-tassels, which they tie to the club with which they will kill him, and then twist a long cord called Massurana, wherewith they bind him before he is to die. When they have all the requisites together, they fix upon a time for his death, and they invite the savages from other villages to proceed thither at that time. They then fill all the vessels with liquor, and a day or two before the women make the drinks they lead the prisoner once or twice to the area, and they dance around him.

Now, when those who come from afar are all gathered together, the chief of the huts bids them welcome, saying, “Now come, help to eat your enemy!” The day before they begin to drink they tie the Mussuruna cord round the prisoner’s neck. The same day they paint the club, called Iwera Pemme, wherewith they intend to dispatch him, and which is shaped in the form here described. It is more, than a fathom in length, and over it they spread a sticky substance: they then take egg-shells, which are of a grey colour, and are laid by a bird called Mackukawa; these they crush to powder, which they spread over the club. Then a woman sits down, and traces lines in the adhering egg- shell- dust. Whilst she paints, a lot of women, who are standing about her, sing. When the Iwera Pemme is decked out as it should be, with feather-tassels and other objects, they hang it in an empty hut to a pole, above the ground, and then they sing around it during the whole night.

In like manner, they paint the prisoner’s face; also, whilst the woman is painting him, the others sing. And when they begin to drink, they take with them the prisoner, who drinks with them, and they chat with him.

Now, as the drinking comes to an end, they rest the day after, and they make for the prisoner a hut on the place where he is to die. Here he lies during the night, well guarded. Towards morning, some time before daylight, they begin to dance and to sing round about the club, wherewith they intend killing him, and they continue until day breaks. Then they take the prisoner out of the hut, which they pull down; they clear a space; they take the Mussurana from off his neck; and they tie it round his body, drawing it tight at both ends. He stands bound in the middle, many of them holding the cords at both ends. They let him stand thus for a while, and they place small stones close to him, that he may throw them at the women, who run around him and threaten to eat him. These same are now painted and ready, when he is cut to pieces, to run with his four quarters round the huts. In this the others find pastime.

Now, when this has been done, they make a fire about two feet from the prisoner: this fire he must see. Then a woman comes running about with the club Iwera Pemme; turns the feather- tassels in the air, and shouts with joy, running before the prisoner that he may see it.

When this is done, a man takes the club, goes with it and stands before the prisoner, and holds it before him, so that he may look at it. Meanwhile, he who is going to kill him, together with fourteen or fifteen others, go and paint their bodies grey with ashes. Then the slayer proceeds with his companions to the place whore the prisoner is, and the other, who stands before the captive, delivers up the club to him. The king of the huts now interposes, takes the club, and places it once between his legs who was to slay the prisoner.

This is considered a great distinction among them. He who has to kill the captive again takes the club, and then says, “Yes, here I am! I will kill thee, for thine have also killed and eaten many of my friends.” Answers he, “When I am dead, I shall yet have many friends, who will revenge me well.” Hereupon, the other strikes him on the head from behind, so that his brains are dashed out. At once he is seized by the women, who drag him to the fire scrape all his skin off, making him quite white, and stop up his posterior with a piece of wood, so that nothing of him may be lost.

When the skin is scraped off, a man takes the body and cuts the legs off above the knee, and the arms. Then four women come and carry away the four pieces, and run with them round the huts, raising great cries of joy. Thereupon they cut off his back with the posterior from the fore-part: this they then divide among themselves; but the entrails are kept by the women, who boil them, and with the broth they make a mess called Mingau. This they and the children drink; the bowels they devour, and they also eat the flesh from off the head: the brains in the head, the tongue, and whatever else is eatable, the young ones eat. When this is done, all go home again, and take their share with them. He who has killed the prisoner gives himself one more name, and the king of the huts scratches his upper arm with a wild beast’s tooth. When it is properly healed, the scars are seen; that is the distinction he gains thereby. He must lie that same day quietly in a hammock,’his people giving him a small bow, with an arrow, wherewith to pass the time shooting into wax. This is done in order that his aims may not become uncertain from the shock of the deathblow. All this I have seen and have been present at.

They also cannot count any certain number beyond five; when they would count more, they point to their fingers and toes. If they desire to speak of any greater number, they point to four or five persons, as many fingers and toes as they want to express.

CAPUT XXIX.

Account of sundry beasts of the country.

There are in the country deer like ours; wild pigs of two kinds of which one resembled those in this country; the other is called Teygasu Dattu, small like a young pig. The same is very difficult to catch in the traps, which the savages use for the purpose of catching game.

There are also baboons of three species. The kind called Key, is that which is brought to this country. There is another species named Ackakey, which is seen jumping about in great numbers on the trees, making a great noise in the forest.

And there is yet another kind called Pricki; these are red; they have beards like goats, and they are as large as an average sized dog.

There is also a kind of animal called Dattu, which is about a span in height, and a span and a half long; it is everywhere about the body covered with armour, on the belly only it has none. The armour is like horn, closing together with links resembling mail; it has a small but long-pointed snout, and a long tail; it frequents rocky places; its food is ants, and the flesh is rich. I have often eaten of it.

CAPUT XXX.

There is also a kind of game, called Serwoy, which is as large as, and which has a tail like, a cat; its hair is whitish-grey, and also blackish-grey. And when it breeds it bears about six young, and it has a slit in the belly, about half a span in length. Within the slit there is yet another skin; for its belly is not open, and within this slit are the teats. Wherever it goes, it carries its young in the slit between the two skins, I have often helped to catch them, and have pulled the young ones from out of the slit.

In the country are also many tigers, which devour the people, and which commit great ravages. There is also a kind of lion, which is called Leoparda; that is to say, grey lion. And many other singular animals are found.

The beasts called Catiuare exist on land and in water. They eat the reeds which stand on the fresh water shores; and when they are alarmed by anything, they dive to the bottom. They are larger than a sheep, and they have heads something like that of the hare, but larger, and short-eared; their tails are stumpy, and their legs somewhat long. They also run swiftly on land, from one river to the other; the hair is greyish-black. They have three balls on each foot, and they taste like hogs’ flesh.

There is also a kind of large water-lizard, and others on shore, which are good to eat.

CAPUT XXXI.

Of a species of insect like small fleas, which the savages call Attun.

There are small insects, which are like fleas, but smaller, called in the savage tongue Attun, and bred in the huts by the uncleanliness of the people. These same creep into the foot, and only cause a tickling sensation when they enter, eating themselves into the flesh, so that one scarcely feels it. If it is not perceived and pulled out at once, it lays a bag of eggs, round as a pea. Then, when one feels it and pulls it out, a small hole of the size of a pea remains in the flesh. I have known them, when I first arrived in the country with the Spaniards, badly to injure the feet of some of our companions, who heeded them not.

CAPUT XXXII.

Of a kind of bat of the country, and how at night, during sleep, it
bites into the toes and foreheads of the natives.

There is also a kind of bat, which is larger than those here in Germany. These beasts fly during the night into the huts and about the hammocks, wherein the people sleep. And when they perceive that anyone sleeps, and lets them they fly to the feet, and bite a mouthfull, or they bite into the forehead, and then fly away again.

Whilst I was among the savages, they often bit my toes; and when I awoke, I saw the toes bleeding. But they generally bite the savages in the forehead.

CAPUT XXXIII.

Of the bees of the country.

There are three kinds of bees in the country. The first is quite similar to those of this country.

The others are black, and as large as flies. The third are small like gnats. These bees all lay their honey in hollow trees, and I have often cut out honey with the savages.

CAPUT XXXIV.

Of the birds of the country.

There are also many singular birds there, a kind called Uwara Pirange, which have their feeding-grounds on the sea-coast, and make their nests on the rocks, which lie close to the shore. They are nearly as large as hens; they have long beaks, and legs like a heron, but not so long. Their peculiarity is, that the first feathers which grow on the young are whitish-grey; when they become fledged, the plume is blackish- grey. With these it is known that they fly one year, then they change these feathers and the whole bird becomes as red as any red paint can be, and so it remains. Its feathers are much prized by the savages.

CAPUT XXXV.

Account of several trees of the country.

There are trees there which the savages call Inni Papoeeywa, and on these grow fruits not unlike apples. This fruit the savages chew and squeeze the juice into a vessel. Herewith they paint themselves; when they first spread it over the akin it looks like water; then, after a while, the skin becomes as black as ink. This dye lasts till the ninth day; then it disappears, and not before, however much they may wash themselves in water.

CAPUT XXXVI.

How cotton-wool grows, and the Brazilian pepper, also sundry other
roots, which the savages plant for food.

The cotton-wool grows on shrubs, about a fathom high, with many branches; when it flowers, it produces balls, which, when about to ripen, open, and the wool in these balls surrounds black kernels, which are the seed from which it is planted. Of these balls the shrubs are full.

The pepper of the country is of two kinds: the one yellow, the other red; both, however, grow in like manner. When green it is as large as the haws that grow on hawthorns. It is a small shrub, about half a fathom high, and has small leaves; it is full of peppers, which burn the mouth. They pluck it when it becomes ripe, and they dry it in the sun.

There are also roots, which they call Jettiki, of pleasant taste. When they plant them they cut small pieces, which are placed in the earth: these then grow, and spread over the ground, like hop trees, throwing off many roots.

CONCLUSION.

Hans Stade wishes the reader God’s mercy and peace.

Kind reader! This, my navigation and travel, I have purposely described with brevity, only to recount how I first fell into the hands of the barbarous people. Therewith to shew how mightily against all hope, the Helper in need, our Lord and God, has delivered me from out of their power. Also that everyone may hear, that Almighty God, now, as much as ever, wonderfully protects and accompanies His believers in Christ among the godless, heathen people; also that for this you all may be thankful with me to God, and trust to Him in the time of need. For He Himself says: “Call to me in the time of need, and I will save thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”

Now, many might say: “Yes; were I to print all that during my life I have attempted and seen, it would make a big book.” It is true; in such manner, I should also be able to describe much more. But the case here is different. I have sufficiently, here and there, pointed out the object which induced me to write this little book, and thus we all owe to God praise and thanksgivings, that He has preserved us from the hours of our births to the present hours of our lives.

Further, I can well conceive that the contents of this little book will seem strange to many. Who can help this? Nevertheless, I am not the first, nor shall I be the last, to whom such voyages, lands, countries, and people are well known. These same will certainly not scoff at such things, of which they have become convinced; rather they will henceforward become the more convinced of them.

But can it be expected that he who is to be sent from life unto death, should be in the same frame of mind as those who stand afar and look on, or who hear the tale thereof? Anyone may answer this question for himself.

Also, if all those who sail to America should fall into the hands of their barbarous enemies, who would wish to proceed thither?

But this I know verily, that many an honest man in Civilien (Seville), Portugal, and France, also some in Antdorff in Braband, who have been in America, must bear me testimony that what I write is true.

But for those to whom such things are unknown, I first of all call God to witness.

The first voyage which. I made to America was in a Portuguese ship, whose captain was called Pintyado. We were three Germans on board: one, called Heinrich Brant, was from Bremen; the other was called Hans von Bruckhausen, and myself.

The other voyage I made from Seville in Spain to the Rio de Platta, a province in America so called. The admiral of the ships was named Don Diego do Senabrie; there was no German with me on that voyage. But at last, after much adversity, peril, and danger at sea and on land suffered during this one voyage, which, as before stated, lasted two years, we were shipwrecked at an island called S. Vincente, situated close to the mainland of Brazil, and inhabited by Portuguese. There I found a countryman, one of the sons of the late Eoban, of Hesse, who received me kindly. Besides this one, the Schetzen, merchants of Antdorff, had a factor called Peter Rösel: these two must bear me witness, as to how I arrived, and how I ultimately was captured by the cruel barbarians.

Further, the seafarers who bought me from the savages came from Normandy in France. The captain of the vessel, Wilhelm de Moner, was from Wattauilla. The mate, whose name was Françoy de Schantz, came from Harflor; the interpreter from Harflor was called Perott. These honest people (may God reward them for it in eternal happiness) have, after God, helped me to reach France; they have helped me to obtain a passport; they have clad me; and they have given me food. These must bear witness for me where they found me.

Thereupon, I embarked at Dieppe in France, for London in England, where the merchants, connected with the Dutchmen, learned from the ship captain, with whom I went thither, all about my circumstances. They made me their guest, giving me the viaticum; thereupon, I sailed to Germany.

In Antdorff I went to the house of Von Oka, to a merchant called Jaspar Schetzen, to whom the before-mentioned Peter Rösel in Sanct Vincente is factor, as above related. To him I brought the news, of how the French had attacked his factor’s ship at Rio de Jenero, but had been repulsed. The said merchant presented me with two imperial ducats, wherewith to pay my way. May God reward him for it!

Now, should there be any young man who is not satisfied with this writing and testimony, let him, so that he may not remain in doubt, with God’s assistance, begin this voyage. I have herein given him information enough, let him follow the spoor; to him whom God helps, the world is not closed!

To Almighty God, who is all in all, be Glory, Honour, and Praise, from Eternity to Eternity! Amen.

Printed at Franckfurdt on the Mayn, by Weygandt Han,
in the Schnurgassen at the sign of the Pitcher.