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humour. They are not only thus civil among themfelves but very obliging and kindto ftrangers, nor were their children rude to us as is ufual. b^dee V 6 w omen, \vwe came to their houfes, would modeftly beg any rags or fma 1 P ie ^ es 9 c . 0 r ,fwaddle their young ones in, holding their children out to us •, and begging is u uaamong all thefe wild nations. Yet neither did they beg fo importunately as m otherplaces, nor did the men ever beg any thing at all; neither, except once at the hrtime that we came to an anchor, as I fhall relate, did they fteal any thing, bu eajuflly and with great fincerity with us, and make us very welcome to their ou eswitbafhee drink. If they had none of this liquor themfelves they would buy a jar of drinkof their neighbours, and fit down with us ; for we could fee them go and give a pieceor two of their gold for fome jars of bafhee. And indeed among wild Indians, as thelefeem to be, I wondered to fee buying and felling, which is not fo ufual, nor to con-verfe fo freely as to go aboard ftrangers* fhips with fo httle caution, yet their ownfmall trading may have brought them to this. At thefe entertainments they andtheir family, wife and children, drank out of fmall calabafhes ; and when by themfelvesthey drink about from one to another, but when any of us came among them theywould always drink to one of us. , . .
They have no fort of coin, but they have fmall crumbs of the metal before deicribed,which they bind up very fafe in plantain-leaves, or the like. 1 his metal they exchangefor what they want, giving a fmall quantity of it, about two or three grams, for a jarof drink that would hold five or fix gallons. They have no fcales, but give it by guefs.Thus much in general.
To proceed therefore with our affairs : I have faid before that we anchored here the6th day of Auguft ; while we were furling our fails there came near a hundred boatsof the natives aboard with three or four men in each, fo that our deck was full of men.We were at firft afraid of them, and therefore got up twenty or thirty fmall arms onour poop, and kept three or four men as centinels, with guns in their hands, ready tofire on them if they had offered to moleft us. But they were pretty quiet, only theypicked up fuch old iron that they found on our deck, and they alfo took out our pump-bolts, and linch-pins out of the carriages of our guns before we perceived them. Atlaft one of our men perceived one of them very bufy getting out one of our linch-pms,and took hold of the fellow j who immediately bawled out, and all the reft prefentlyleaped overboard, fome into their boats, others into the fea, and they all made awayfor the fliore. But when we perceived their fright we made much of him that was inhold, who flood trembling all the while j and at laft we gave him a fmall piece ofiron, with which he immediately leaped overboard and fwam to his conforts, whohovered about our (hip to fee the iffue; then we beckoned to them to come aboardagain, being very loath to lofe 'a commerce with them. Some of the boats came aboardagain, and they were always very honeft and civil afterward.
We prefently after this fent a canoe afhore to fee their manner of living, and whatprovifion they had; the canoe’s crew were made very welcome with bafhee drink,and faw abundance of hogs, fome of which they bought, and returned aboard. Afterthis the natives brought aboard both hogs and goats to us in their own boats ; and everyday we fhould have fifteen or twenty hogs and goats aboard by our fide. Ihefe webought for a fmall matter, we could buy a good fat goat for an old iron hoop, and a°S of feventy or eighty pounds weight for two or three pounds of iron. Their drinkalto they brought off in jars, which we bought for old nails, fpikes, and leaden bullets.Hdide the fore-mentioned commodities they brought aboard great quantities of yams-Riia potatoes, which we purchafed for nails, fpikes, or bullets. It was one man’s work
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