3*7
behind a bulh, wounded one of our men in the thigh, who died immediately *.Though our people fired on the runaways, they were unable to hit any, on accountof their not efcaping in a ftraight line, but leaping from one fide to another, andgetting on as fwiftly as horfes at a full gallop. Our people burned the hut of thefefavages, and buried their dead companion.
Savage as they are, thefe Indians are yet not without their medicaments. When theyhave a pain in the ftomach, for example, in lieu of an operative medicine, they thruftan arrow pretty deeply down the throat, to excite a vomit, and throw up a matter ofa greenifh colour, mixed with blood f. The green is occafioned by a fort of thiftle,on which they feed. If they have the head-ache, they make a gafh in their forehead,and do the fame with the other parts of their body, where they experience pain, inorder to draw' from the affeded part a confiderable quantity of blood. Their theory*as explained to us by one of thofe we had taken, is on a par with their pradice :pain, they fay, proceeds from the reludance of the blood to abide any longer in thepart where it is felt; by releafing it, confequently, the pain is removed.
Their hair is cut circularly like that of monks, but is longer, and fupported round{ he head by a cotton firing, in which they place their arrows when they go hunting.^Vhen the weather is very cold, they tie their private parts clofely to the body. Ita ppears that their religion is limited to adoring the devil: they pretend that when one°f them is on the point of death, ten or twelve demons appear dancing and fingingaround him. One of thefe, who makes a greater noife than the reft, is termedSetebos, the inferior imps are called Cheleule; they are painted like the people of
T ne country. Our giant pretends to have once feen a devil, with horns, and hair of|uch length as to cover his feet; he call out flames, added he, from his mouth and.bis pofteriors.
Thefe people, as I have already noticed, clothe themfelves in the Ikin of an animal,,and with the fame kind of fkin do they cover their huts, which they tranfport■whither fuits them beft, having no fixed place of abode, but wandering about fromf Pot to fpot like gypfies. They generally live upon raw meat, and a fvveet roofrcalled capac ; they are great feeders : the two we took daily confumed a baiket full°f bread each, and drank half a pail of water at a draught, they eat mice raw, andWithout even flaying them. Our captain gave thefe people the name of Patagonians.v ^' e fpent five months in this port, to which we gave the denomination of St.Julian,and met with no accidents on fliore, during: the whole of our ftay, fave what I have.
noticed.
Scarcely had we anchored in this port before the four captains of the-other vefielsplotted to murder the captain-general. Thefe traitors were Juan of Carthagena,.
chador | of the fquadron ; Lewis de Mendoza, the treafurer; Antonio Cocca, thePayniafier; and Gafpar de Cafada. The plot was difcovered, the firfl: was flayedlv e, and the fecond was ftabbed to the heart; Gafpar de Cafada was forgiven, but,
b Is well known that favages make ufe of poifoned arrows, and our travellers had even other examples-
blebry has given the reprefentation of a Patagonian in this attitude. It is poiTible that they may.^ U , ? n ari 'ow into the gullet, to free themfelves by vomiting, from indigeftion. Sometimes favages put a.th ■ , Info •heir mouths, in prefence of their idols, to prove to them that they have nothing impure in.±V 0 h 7 * brNZONi, publilhed by Debry.
Soa •rf” at ^ or > or veador, in the ancient Portugueze, fignified the manager of a foeiety.of monks: inCarth l ^ IS Cl ® cer ls called veedor, from veer, to look after. Some writers pretend that John ofJda ?,® ena was a bifhop ; but Pigafetta would not have omitted meuj^on of. this circumftance, and-,£ e an would not have punilhed him in fuch a cruet manner, had he been invelted with this dignity.
a few