pigafetta’s voyage round the world.
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There are here two kinds of pepper, long and round; the fruit of the long pepper-treerefembles the flowers of the hazel. The plant, like the ivy, is a climber, which adheresto the trunks of trees; but its leaves are fimilar to thole of the mulberry. This pep-per is called luli. Round pepper grows on a like climber, but its fruit, as maize, is in.ears, and is beaten out as that grain ; this fpecies of pepper is called lada. The fields°f the country are covered with pepper plants, formed into bowers..
At Mallua we took a man on board who engaged to conduft us to an ifland morebounding in provifions. The ifland Mallua lies in latitude eight degrees thirty minutes-,fouth longitude, one hundred and fixty-nine degrees forty minutes from the line of de-marcation.
. Our old pilot from the Maluccas related to us on our way that in thefe parts is anifland called Arucheto, the inhabitants of which, men as well as women,.are not more'than a cubit high, and have ears as long as their body, fo that when they lie down toone ferves as a mattrafs to lie upon, and the other for a coverlid '*. Their hairj? fliorn, and they go entirely naked : their voice is fliarp, and they run with much:iwiftnefs. Their dwellings are caverns under ground, and their aliment fifli and a kind'fruit they obtain from between the back and ligneous body of a certain tree. Thisfruit, which is white and round as comfits made of coriander, is called by them ambu-°n. We would willingly have vifited this ifland, but were prevented by the fhallowsan d currents.
On Saturday, 25th January, 1522, at twenty-two o’clock, (half-paft two), we failedr °m the ifland Mallua, and after a courfe fouth-fouth-wefl: of five leagues, reached a.tolerably large ifland called Timor. I went on fhore alone to treat u'ith the chief of av dlage, called Amaban, for hogs. He offered me buffaloes, hogs, and goats ; but whenthe merchandize to be given in barter was mentioned we could not agree, as he re-quired much, and we had little remaining to give. Upon this we determined on re-taining the chief of another village, called Balibo, who had come on board of his owna ccord, bringing his fon with him. We told him if he wifhed to recover his liberty hetUnff procure for 11s fix buffaloes, ten hogs, and as many goats. This man, who was:a Pprehenfive of being put to death immediately, gave the neceffary orders for all we-Required to be brought to us ; and as he had but five goats and two hogs, he gave us:eVen buffaloes inftead of fix. This effected, we fent him again on fhore, well fatisfied,us on releafing him we gave him fome linen, a piece of Indian cloth, filk, and cotton,,0l ?f axes, Indian cutlaffes, knives, and mirrors.
■t he chief of Amaban, to whom I firfl went, had none but women to wait on hitn,,o went naked like thofe of the other iflands. In their ears they wear fmall gold ear-^ugs, to which they fallen fmall fkeins of filk. On their arms they wear fo manyn ace lets of gold or brafs, as to cover the arms to the elbow. The men are likewifeis f ft 5 ^ Ut roun ^ their* neck they have a collar of round plates of gold, and their hair ■uffened up with combs of bamboo, ornamented with gold. Some, in lieu of golden;wl' Vear * n t ^ le * r ears c u* c ^ es made from the neck of the pumpkin dried.
1 hite fandal is found on this ifland alone. It contains, as we have {hewn, buffaloes,.§ s > and goats, befides fowls and parrots of different plumage. Here, likewife, grow
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JLrr I® w orthy of remark that this Angular fablers to be feen in Strabo (Geog. lib, xv.) Strabo copiedA f Megafthenes, one of the captains of Alexander the Great . Even in our time thefe iflanders amufeth at * VCS W '^' re ' at ing fimilar wonderful ftories to travellers. Some of them wifhed to make Cook believehe a ],j n a c ^ain 'Hand the men were of ftature fo gigantic, and of fuch amazing ftrength, that they woulde to carry his fhip away with them.
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