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Page 50
To the intent, therefore, that this peace which they themselues so
willingly sought might, without any cause of the breach thereof on our
part given, be continued, and that wee might with more safety and
expedition end our businesses in quiet, our Generall, with all his
company, vsed all meanes possible gently to intreate them, bestowing
vpon each of them liberally good and necessary things to couer their
nakednesse; withall signifying vnto them we were no Gods, but men, and
had neede of such things to couer our owns shame; teaching them to vse
them to the same ends, for which cause also wee did eate and drinke in
their presence, giuing them to vnderstand that without that wee could
not liue, and therefore were but men as well as they.
Notwithstanding nothing could perswade them, nor remoue that opinion
which they had conceiued of vs, that wee should be Gods.
In recompence of those things which they had receiued of vs, as
shirts, linnen cloth, etc., they bestowed vpon our Generall, and
diuerse of our company, diuerse things, as feathers, cawles of
networke, the quiuers of their arrowes, made of fawne skins, and the
very skins of beasts that their women wore vpon their bodies. Hauing
thus had their fill of this times visiting and beholding of vs, they
departed with ioy to their houses, which houses are digged round
within the earth, and haue from the vppermost brimmes of the circle
clefts of wood set vp, and ioyned close together at the top, like our
spires on the steeple of a Church; which being couered with earth,
suffer no water to enter, and are very warme; the doore in the most
part of them performes the office also of a chimney to let out the
smoake: its made in bignesse and fashion like to an ordinary scuttle
in a ship, and standing slopewise: their beds are the hard ground,
onely with rushes strewed vpon it, and lying round about the house,
haue their fire in the middest, which by reason that the house is but
low vaulted, round, and close, giueth a maruelous reflexion to their
bodies to heate the same.
Their men for the most part goe naked; the women take a kinde of
bulrushes, and kembing it after the manner of hemp, make themselues
thereof a loose garment, which being knitte about their middles,
hanges downe about their hippes, and so affordes to them a couering of
that which nature teaches should be hidden; about their shoulders they
weare also the skin of a deere, with the haire vpon it. They are very
obedient to their husbands, and exceeding ready in all seruices; yet
of themselues offring to do nothing, without the consents or being
called of the men....
Against the end of three daies more (the newes hauing the while spread
itselfe farther, and as it seemed a great way vp into the countrie),
were assembled the greatest number of people which wee could
reasonably imagine to dwell within any conuenient distance round
about. Amongst the rest the king himselfe, a man of a goodly stature
and comely personage, attended with his guard of about 100 tall and
warlike men, this day, viz., June 26, came downe to see vs.
Before his comming, were sent two embassadors or messengers to our
Generall, to signifie that their Hioh, that is, their king, was
comming and at hand. They in the deliuery of their message, the one
spake with a soft and low voice, prompting his fellow; the other
pronounced the same, word by word, after him with a voice more
audible, continuing their proclamation (for such it was) about halfe
an houre. Which being ended, they by signes made request to our
Generall, to send something by their hands to their Hioh or king, as a
token that his comming might be in peace. Our Generall willingly
satisfied their desire; and they, glad men, made speedy returne to
their Hioh. Neither was it long before their king (making as princely
a shew as possibly he could) with all his traine came forward.
In their comining forwards they cryed continually after a singing
manner, with a lustie courage. And as they drew neerer and neerer
towards vs, so did they more and more striue to behaue themselues with
a certaine comelinesse and grauity in all their actions.
In the forefront came a man of a large body and goodly aspect, bearing
the Scepter or royall mace, made of a certaine kind of blacke wood,
and in length about a yard and a halfe, before the king. Whereupon
hanged two crownes, a bigger and a lesser, with three chaines of a
maruellous length, and often doubled, besides a bagge of the herbe
Tab�h. The crownes were made of knitworke, wrought vpon most curiously
with feathers of diners colours, very artificially placed, and of a
formall fashion. The chaines seemed of a bony substance, euery linke
or part thereof being very little, thinne, most finely burnished, with
a hole pierced through the middest. The number of linkes going to make
one chaine is in a manner infinite; but of such estimation it is
amongst them, that few be the persons that are admitted to weare the
same; and euen they to whom its lawfull to use them, yet are stinted
what number they shall vse, as some ten, some twelue, some twentie,
and as they exceed in number of chaines, so thereby are they knowne to
be the more honorable personages.
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