A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The country has plenty of wood, but the trees are very small, hardly
better than bushes. But woods, which are an ornament to most other
countries, serve only to make this appear the more desolate; for
locusts swarm here in such numbers, that they do not leave a
green leaf on the trees. In the day, these destructive insects are
continually on the wing in clouds, and are extremely troublesome by
flying in, one's face. In shape and size they greatly resemble our
green grasshoppers, but are of a yellow colour. Immediately after we
cast anchor, they came off in such numbers, that the sea around the
ship was covered with their dead bodies. By their incessant ravages,
the whole country round Porto Leguro was stripped totally naked,
notwithstanding the warmth of the climate and the richness of the
soil. Believing that the natives are only visited with this plague at
this season of the year, I gave them a large quantity of calavances,
and shewed them how they were sown. The harbour of Porto Leguro is
about two leagues to the N.E. of Cape St Lucas, being a good and safe
port, and very convenient for privateers when cruizing for the Manilla
ship. The watering-place is on the north side of the bay or harbour,
being a small river which there flows into the sea, and may easily be
known by the appearance of a great quantity of green canes growing
in it, which always retain their verdure, not being touched by the
locusts, as these canes probably contain, something noxious to that
voracious insect.
The men of this country are tall, straight, and well set, having large
limbs, with coarse black hair, hardly reaching to their shoulders. The
women are of much smaller size, having much longer hair than the men,
with which some of them almost cover their faces. Some of both sexes
have good countenances; but all are much darker-complexioned than
any of the other Indians I saw in the South Seas, being a very deep
copper-colour. The men go quite naked, wearing only a few trifles by
way of ornament, such as a band or wreath of red and white silk-grass
round their heads, adorned on each side with a tuft of hawk's
feathers. Others have pieces of mother-of-pearl and small shells
fastened among their hair, and tied round their necks; and some had
large necklaces of six or seven strings, composed of small red and
black berries. Some are scarified all over their bodies; others use
paint, some smearing their faces and breasts with black, while others
were painted black down to the navel, and from thence to the feet with
red.
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