The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 14: America, Part IIIHakluyt, Richard
History
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 14: America, Part III
Hakluyt, Richard
Discoveries in geography -- English; Voyages and travels
In this Island were such abundance of Seales, as it was wonderful. Here
we stayed that day, and killed a great number of these Seales, with whom
we had some trouble: for they were so many, and ayded one another so
well, that it was strange to behold; for it fell out, that while we were
occupied in killing some of them with staues, they assembled twentie or
thirty together, and lifting themselues vp assayled vs with their feete
in a squadron, and ouerthrew two or three of our company on the ground:
whereupon letting goe those which they had in their hands, they and the
others escaped vs and went into the sea, howbeit wee killed good store
of them, which were so fatte as it was wonderfull: and when we opened
some of them to haue their liuers, we found certaine small blacke stones
in their bodies, whereat we much marueiled. The next day wee rode at
anker here for lacke of good weather to sayle withall: whereupon the
Captaine determined to goe on shore with nine or ten of his company, to
see whether there were any people there, or any signe of people that
had bene there, and they found on the maine land seuen or eight Indians
like to Chichimecas, which were gone a fishing, and had a raft of canes;
who so soone as they espied vs ranne away and betooke themselues to
flight, but being pursued by vs, in the end we tooke one of them, whose
language was so strange that wee could by no meanes vnderstand him; his
clothing was nothing at all, for he was starke naked. These people
caried their water in bottels made of beasts skins, they fished with
hookes of bone, and wee found good store of their fishes, whereof we
tooke three or foure dozen.
The Indian which we had taken seeing himselfe in our hands did nothing
but weepe, but the Captaine called him, and made much of him, giuing him
certaine beades, with a hat and certaine hookes of ours, and then let
him goe. And it seemed that after hee was returned to his companions, he
declared vnto them how we had done him no harme at all, showing them the
things which wee had giuen him: whereupon they also determined to come
vnto vs to our boate, but because it was now night, and that our shippes
were farre from vs, we forced not to stay for them, especially because
it was a bad place and a dangerous. This countrey hath on the sea coast
high and bare mountaines with certaine grasse in some places like vnto
our broomes, or like vnto woods of rosemary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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