And because there were so many of those blacks[BI] on land that by no means could they disembark either by day or night, Gomez Pirez sought to show that he desired to go among them on peaceful terms, and so placed upon the shore a cake and a mirror and a sheet of paper on which he drew a cross. And the natives when they came there and found those things, broke up the cake and threw it far away, and with their assegais they cast at the mirror, till they had broken it in many pieces, and the paper they tore, showing that they cared not for any of these things. [Footnote BI: Guineas.] "Since it is so," said Gomez Pirez to his crossbowmen, "shoot at them with your bows that they may at least understand that we are people who can do them hurt, whenever they will not agree to a friendly understanding." But the blacks seeing the others' intention, began to pay them back, launching at them also their arrows and assegais, some of which our men brought home to this kingdom. And the arrows are so made that they have no feathers, nor a notch for the string to enter, but they are all smooth and short, and made of rushes or reeds, and their iron points are long and some are made of wood fixed in the shafts, which are like the iron spindles with which the women of this country spin. And they use also other little harpoons of iron, the which darts are all equally poisoned with plants. And their assegais are each made with seven or eight harpoon-like prongs, and the plant they use is very venomous. And in that island in which the arms of the Infant[N156] were carved they found trees of great size, and of strange forms, and among these was one which was not less than 108 palms in circuit at the foot. And this tree[N157] doth not grow very high, but is about as lofty as the walnut-tree, and from its middle bark they make very good thread for cordage, and it burneth like flax. The fruit is like a gourd, and its seeds are like filberts, and this fruit they eat green, and the seeds they dry. And of these there is a great abundance, and I believe they use them for their maintenance after the green faileth them. And some there were who said they saw there birds which appeared to them to be parrots.