down to their shoulders; and when they expressed their astonishment, the natives told them, that in an island not far off, there were men, who had such long and wide ears, that one ear could, when they liked, cover the whole of their heads.  But as our men were not in search of monsters but of spices, they did not trouble themselves about such rubbish, but sailed direct for the Moluccas, where they arrived in the eighth month after their admiral Magellan had been slain in the island of Mauthan.  The islands are five in number, and are called, Tarante, Muthil, Thedori, Mare, and Matthien, [235] situated partly to the north, partly to the south, and partly on the equator; the productions are cloves, nutmegs, and cinnamon:  they are all close together, but of small extent.  A few years ago the kings [of] Marmin began to believe that the soul is immortal.  They were induced to believe this solely from the following reason, that they observed that a certain very beautiful small bird never settled on the earth, or on anything that was on the earth; but that these birds sometimes fell dead from the sky to the earth.  And when the Mohammedans, who visited them for trading purposes, declared that these birds came from Paradise, the place of abode of departed souls, these princes adopted the Mohammedan faith, which makes wonderful promises respecting this same paradise.  They call this bird Mamuco Diata; and they venerate it so highly, that the kings think themselves safe in battle under their protection, even when, according to their custom, they are placed in the front line of the army in battle.  The common people are Kafirs, and have much the same manners and customs as the islanders of Porne, already spoken of; they are much in need of supplies from abroad, inasmuch as their country only produces spices, which they willingly exchange for the poisonous articles arsenic and sublimated mercury, and for the linen which they generally wear; but what use they make of these poisons has not yet been ascertained.  They live on sago-bread, fish, and sometimes parrots; they live in very low-built cabins:  in short, all they esteem and value is peace, leisure, and spices.  The former, the greatest of blessings, the wickedness of mankind seems to have banished from our part of the world to theirs:  but our avarice and insatiable desire of the luxuries of the table has urged us to seek for spices even in those distant lands.  To such a degree has the perversity of human nature persisted in driving away as far as possible that which is conducive to happiness, and in seeking for articles of luxury in the remotest parts of the world.  Our men having carefully examined the position of the Moluccas, and of each separate island, and also into the characters of the chiefs, sailed to Thedori, because they understood that this island produced a greater abundance of cloves than the others, and also that the king excelled the other kings in prudence and humanity.  Providing themselves with presents they went on shore, and paid