had the same difficulty, we drew in with the land and sent a boat on shore.  Many people who were seen coming to the sea-side fled at our approach, but occasionally stopping, they looked back upon us with astonishment, and some were at length induced, by various friendly signs, to come to us.  These showed the greatest delight on beholding us, wondering at our dress, countenances and complexion.  They then showed us by signs where we could more conveniently secure our boat, and offered us some of their provisions.  That your Majesty may know all that we learned, while on shore, of their manners and customs of life, I will relate what we saw as briefly as possible.  They go entirely naked, except that about the loins they wear skins of small animals, like martens fastened by a girdle of plaited grass, to which they tie, all round the body, the tails of other animals hanging down to the knees; all other parts of the body and the head are naked.  Some wear garlands similar to birds’ feathers.

The complexion of these people is black, not much different from that of the Ethiopians; their hair is black and thick, and not very long, it is worn tied back upon the head in the form of a little tail.  In person they are of good proportions, of middle stature, a little above our own, broad across the breast, strong in the arms, and well formed in the legs and other parts of the body; the only exception, to their good looks is that have broad faces, but not all, however, as we saw many that had sharp ones, with large black eyes and a fixed expression.  They are not very strong in body, but acute in mind, active and swift of foot, as far as we could judge by observation.  In these last two particulars they resemble the people of the east, especially those the most remote.  We could not learn a great many particulars of their usages on account of our short stay among them and the distance of our ship from the shore.

We found not far from this people another whose mode of life we judged to be similar.  The whole shore is covered with fine sand, about fifteen feet thick, rising in the form of little hills about fifty paces broad.  Ascending farther, we found several arms of the sea which make in through inlets, washing the shores on both aides as the coast runs.  An outstretched country appears at a little distance rising somewhat above the sandy shore in beautiful fields and broad plains, covered with immense forests of trees, more or less dense, too various in colours, and too delightful and charming in appearance to be described, I do not believe that they are like the Hercynian forest or the rough wilds of Scythia, and the northern regions full of vines and common trees, but adorned with palms, laurels, cypresses, and other varieties unknown in Europe, that send forth the sweetest fragrance to a great distance, but which, we could not examine more closely for the reasons before given, and not on account of any difficulty in traversing the woods, which, on the contrary, are easily penetrated.