A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The men and women go so much alike, that a woman
is only to be known from a man by her breasts, which are mostly long and
hanging down like the udder of a milch goat.
[Footnote 231: Sestro river, in the Complete Neptune of the Rev. James
Stanier Clarke, chart. 2, is called Sesters, in lat. 5° 30' N. long. 9°
10' W. from Greenwich. The river St Vincent of the text does not appear
in that chart, but nearly at the indicated distance to the E.S.E. is one
named Sangwin.--E.]
Soon after coming to anchor on the 15th December, we went up the river
in our skiff, carrying with us certain basons, _manels_, &c. for sale.
We procured that day one hogshead and 100 pounds weight of grains,[232]
and two elephants teeth, getting both at an easy rate. We sold the
natives basons, _maneilios_, and _margarits_,[233] but basons were most
in request, and for most of these we got thirty pounds of _grains_ in
exchange for each, and gave for an elephants tooth of thirty pounds
weight six basons. We went again up the river on the 16th, in the
morning, taking some of every kind of merchandise along with us in our
boat, and shewed them to the negroes, but they made light of every
thing, even of the basons, manellios, and margarite which they had
bought the day before; yet they would have given us some grains for our
basons, but so very little that we did not that day get above 100 pounds
weight, through their chief or captain, who would not suffer any one to
sell but through his mediation and at his price. He was so cunning that
he would not give above 15 pounds of grains for a bason, and would
sometimes offer us a small dishful, whereas we had a basket full for
each the day before. Seeing that we would not accept what he offered,
the captain of the negroes went away, and caused all the boats to depart
likewise, thinking perhaps that we would have followed and agreed to his
terms; but on perceiving his drift, we hauled up our grapnel and went
away likewise. We landed at a small town, to see the manners of the
people, and about 60 of them came about us, being at first shy, and
seemingly afraid of us; but seeing we did them no harm, they came up in
a familiar manner, and took us by the hand. We then went into their
town, which consisted of about twenty small hovels, covered over with
large leaves. All the sides were open, and the floor was raised like a
scaffold about a yard high, where they work many ingenious things of the
barks of trees, and there also they sleep. In some of these hovels they
work in iron, making very pretty heads for javelins, tools for making
their boats, and various other things, the women working as well as the
men.
[Footnote 232: That is grains of paradise, so the Italians called Guinea
pepper when they first saw it, not knowing what it was. We took the name
from them, and hence came the name of the Grain Coast--Astl. I. 152, a.]
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