34 LIFE 0F COLON, BY HIS SON.

prefent, and conlequently the Chriftians admitted him as admiral and viceroy, andfwore to obey him as reprefenting their Highneffes’ perfons, and with fuch expreffionsof joy as became their mighty fuccefs, all of them begging his pardon for all theaffronts they had done him through their fear and irrefolution. Abundance of theIndians being come down to this rejoicing, and the admiral perceiving they were peace-able, quiet, and very fimple people, he gave them fome red caps, and firings of glafsbeads, which they hung about their necks, and other things of fmall value, which theyvalued as if they had been flone of high price.

CHAP. XXIV. — The Manners and Cujloms of thofe People , and what the Admiral

faw in that IJland.

THE admiral being gone off to his boats, the Indians followed him to them and tothe fhips fwimming, and others in their canoes, carrying parrots, bottoms of fpun cotton,javelins, and other fuch trifles to barter for glafs beads, bells, and other things of fmallvalue. Like people in their original fimplicity, they went naked as they were born, anda woman that was among them had no other clothing. Mofl of them were young,not above thirty years of age; of a good flature; their hair lank, thick, very blackand fhort, being cut above their ears, except fome few who had let it grow down totheir fhoulders, and had tied it with a ftrong thread about their head like women’streffes. Their countenances were pleafant, and their features good, but their too highforeheads made them look fomewhat wild. They were of a middle ftature, wellfhaped, plump, but of an olive colour like the people of the Canaries, or peafants thatare fun-burnt. Some were painted with black, fome with white and others with red;fome only the faces, others the whole body, and others nothing but the eyes and nofe.They had no weapons like our men, nor knowledge of them ; for when the ChriftiansIhewed them a naked fword, they took it Amply by the edge. Nor had they anyknowledge of iron, and therefore they made their javelins we mentioned of wands,with the points hardened at the fire, arming them with a fifh bone inftead of iron.Some of them having fears of wounds about them, and being aiked by figns how theycame by them, they anfwered by figns that people came from other iflands to takethem away, and they received thofe wounds in their own defence. They feemedingenious and of a voluble tongue, for they eafily repeated the words they once heard.There was no fort of creatures there but parrots, which they carried to barter amongthe other things we have fpoke of, and in this trade they continued till night. Nextday, being the 13th of October, in the morning many of them came down to the (horeand went aboard in their boats called canoes, which were made of one piece, being thebody of a tree hollowed like a tray. The biggeft of them were fo large, they con-tained forty or forty-five men, and fo lefs and lefs, till fome would hold but one. Theyrowed with a paddle like a baker’s peel, or thofe they ufe in dreffing hemp; true it is,that the oars are not fixed on the fide with pins to turn as ours are, but they dip themin the water, and pull back as if they were digging. Thefe canoes are fo light and foartificially built, that if they overfet they foon turn them right again, fwimming, andempty the water by throwing the water from fide to fide like a weaver’s fhuttle; andwhen it is above half out, they lade out what remains with dried calabafhes cut in two,which they carry for that purpofe. That day they brought fuch things to barter foras they had the day before, giving all they had for any fmall things they could get.Jewels or any fort of metal were not feen among them, except fome fmall plates of