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We entered this port * on St. Lucy ’s day the 13th of December. The fun at noonwas vertical, and we fuffered much more from the heat than on palling the line.
The land of Brazil , which abounds in all kinds of productions, is as extenlive asSpain, France, and Italy united: it belongs to Portugal .
The Brazilians are not Chriftians; Hill they are not idolaters, for they worlhipnothing; natural inrtinct is the only law they acknowledge. They are very long lived,for they generally reach a hundred and five, and fometimes a hundred and forty f.They go entirely naked, the women as well as the men. Their houfes are long cabins,termed by them boi, and they lie on nets of cotton, called hamaks J, fattened by thetwo extremities to two ftrong ports. Their hearths are on the ground. One of thefebois fometimes contains a hundred men, with their wives and children ; there is con-fequently always much noife in them. Their boats, which they call canoes, are formedof the trunk of a tree, hollowed by means of a fharp ftone ; for ftone is their fub-ftitute for iron, of which they are deftitute. Thefe trees are fo large that a finglecanoe is capable of containing thirty or even forty perfons, who paddle with oarsfimilar to bakers’ fhovels. On feeing them fo black, naked, dirty, and bald, onewight miftake them eafily for Charon’s ferrymen.
The men and women are well made, and formed as we are. They fometimes eathuman flefh; but only that of their enemies. It is neither from want or inclination theyfollow this practice, but owing to a cuftom the origin of which they thus relate. An°ld woman had but one fon, who was killed by the enemy. Shortly after the mur-derer of her fon was taken prifoner, and brought before her: full of revenge themother flew upon him like a beaft of 'prey, and tore away part of his fhoulder withher teeth. This man had the good fortune not only to efcape from the woman, butto rejoin his own people, to whom he exhibited the print of teeth on his fhoulder, andwhom he made believe (what perhaps he himfelf fancied to be the cafe) that theenemy were difpofed to devour him alive. That they might not be inferior in crueltyto the others, thefe refolved on really devouring the enemies they might take in battle,and thofe again retaliated. Still they do not devour their prifoners at the inftant, norwhile alive; they cut them in pieces and divide the parts among the conquerors.Each individual carries away with him his allotment, dries it in finoke, and everyeighth day cooks a finall portion. This fact I learn from Johan Carvajo §, our pilot,who paffed four years in the Brazils.
The Brazilians paint their bodies, and efpecially their faces, in a ftrange manner,and in different figures, the men as well as the women. They have fhort and woollyhair on the head, but none on any other part of the body, for they root it out jj.Ehey have a vert made of the interwoven feathers of the parrot, and fo arranged thatthe large quills of the pinions and tail form a circle round their loins, which givesthem a whimfical and ridiculous appearance. Almoft all the men have the lower lippierced with three holes through which they run a cylindrical ftone, very narrow and
+ Vefpucci relates the fame: he likewife notices how, bv means of pebbles, they computed their age5 1 u P'°°t s they gave of iheir longevity, by prefenting to him the fon, grandfon, great-grandfon,
3n , “te grandfon’s grandfon, ftill living. Lettere di Amer. Vefp. Bartolozzi, loco citato.
+ Whence evidently our word hammock. Eng. Tr.h r u ° llr manu fcript he is fometi;res called Carrnaio at others Caruaio ; it cannot however be doubtednje nt - 1S ^ le ^dividual Johan Carvallhos, of whom Caltagncda and other writers of that time make
II Many barbarous nations follow the fame pra£lice even now, making ufe for the purpofe of bivalve
^ells m lieu 0 f pincers.
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