channel, with two-and-twenty to eight-and-twenty fathom water in it all the way, as far as they went. Here they went on shore and trafficked with the natives, whom they found rude and unpolished, but a very mild, inoffensive people; nor did they find them anything thievish, much less treacherous, as in some such countries is the case. They had the good luck to find out the place where, as they supposed, the king of the country resided, which was a kind of a city encompassed with a river almost all round, the river making a kind of double horse-shoe. The manner of their living is too long to describe, neither could our men give any account of their government or of the customs of the place; but what they sought for was gold and provisions, and of that they got pretty considerable. They found the Indians terribly surprised at the first sight of them, but after some time they found means to let them know they desired a truce, and to make them understand what they meant by it. At length a truce being established, the king came, and with him near three hundred men; and soon after the queen, with half as many women. They were not stark naked, neither men or women, but wearing a loose piece of cloth about their middles. What it was made of we could not imagine, for it was neither linen or woollen, cotton, or silk; nor was it woven, but twisted and braided by hand, as our women make bone lace with bobbins. It seems it was the stalk of an herb which this was made with, and was so strong that I doubt not it would have made cables for our ships if we had wanted to make such an experiment. When the king first came to our men, they were a little shy of his company, he had so many with him, and they began to retire, which the king perceiving, he caused all his men to stop and keep at a distance, and advanced himself, with about ten or twelve of his men, and no more. When he was come quite up, our men, to show their breeding, pulled off their hats, but that he did not understand, for his men had no hats on; but the office making a bow to him, he understood that presently, and bowed again, at which all his men fell down flat upon their faces, as flat to the ground as if they had been shot to death with a volley of our shot, and they did not fall so quick, but they were up again as nimbly, and then down flat on the ground again; and this they did three times, their king bowing himself to our men at the same time. This ceremony being over, our men made signs to them that they wanted victuals to eat and something to drink, and pulled out several things, to let the people see they would give something for what they might bring them. The king understood them presently, and turning to some of his men, he talked awhile to them, and our men observed that while he spoke they seemed to be terrified as if he had been threatening them with death. However, as soon as he had done, three of them went away, and our men supposed they went to fetch something that the king would give them; upon which, that they might be beforehand with them, our men presented his majesty with two pair of bracelets of fine glass-beads of several colours, and put them upon his arms, which he took most kindly; and then they gave him a knife, with a good plain ivory handle, and some other odd things. Upon receiving these noble presents, he sends away another of his men, and a little after two more. Our men observed that two of the men went a great way off towards the hill, but the other man that he sent away first went to his queen, who with her retinue of tawny ladies, stood but a little way off, and soon after her majesty came with four women only attending her. The officer who commanded our men, finding he should have another kind of compliment to pay the ladies, retired a little; and being an ingenious, handy sort of a man, in less than half an hour he and another of his men made a nice garland, or rather a coronet of sundry strings of beads, and with glass bobs and pendants all hanging about it most wonderful gay; and when the queen was come, he went up to the king, and showing it to him, made signs that he would give it to the queen. The king took it, but was so pleased with it that truly he desired our officer to put it upon his own head, which he did; but when he had got it upon his own head he made bold to let our men see he was king over his wife as well as over the rest of the country, and that he would wear it himself. With that our man pulled out a little pocket looking-glass, and holding it up, he let his majesty see his own face, which we might reasonably suppose he had never seen before, especially not with a crown on his head too. That till that looking glass came, and he saw his own face, he was grave and majestic, and carried it something like a king, but he was so ravished with this that he was quite beside himself, and jumped, and capered, and danced about like a madman. All this while our men saw nothing coming, but that all was given on their side; whereupon they made signs again that they wanted provisions. He made signs again, pointing to a hill a good way off, as if it would come from thence very quickly, and then looked to see if they were coming, as if he was impatient till they came as well as our people. During this time one of our men observed that the queen had several pieces of gold, as they thought them to be, hanging about her, as particularly in her hair, and large flat plaits of gold upon the hinder part of her head, something in the place of a roll as our women wear; that her hair was wound about it in rolls braided together very curiously; and having informed our officer, he made signs to the king for leave to give the queen something, which he consented to. So he went to her majesty, making a bow as before; but this complaisance surprised her, for upon his bowing himself, on a sudden falls the queen and all her four ladies flat on the ground, but were up again in a moment; and our people wondered how they could throw themselves so flat on their faces and not hurt themselves; nor was it less to be wondered at how they could so suddenly jump up again, for they did not rise up gradually as we must do, with the help of our hands and their bellies, but sitting as beautifully up as if they had been laced up with stays round her body; and below her breast she had a broad piece of a skin of some curious creature, spotted like a leopard, or rather, as I believe it was, some fine spotted deer. This was wrapped round her very tight, like a body-girth to a horse; and under this she had a kind of petticoat, as before described, hanging down to her ankles. As for knees, if we were extended so flat on our faces, but they with a spring, whether with their hands or their whole bodies we know not, jumped up all at once, and were upon their feet immediately. This compliment over, our officer stepped up to the queen, and ties about her neck a most delicate necklace of pearl; that is to say, of large, handsome white glass beads, which might in England cost about four-pence halfpenny, and to every one of her ladies he gave another of smal-shoes or stockings, they were only such as nature ler beads and different colours than those which he gave the queen. Then he presented her majesty with a long string of glass-beads which being put over her head, reached down to her waist before, and joined in a kind of a tassel, with a little knot of blue ribbon, which she was also extremely pleased with; and very fine she was. The queen made, it seems, the first return, for stepping to one of her women, our men observed that she took something out of her hair, and she let her tie her hair up again; after which she brought it and gave it to our officer, making signs to know if it was acceptable. It was a piece of gold that weighed about two ounces and a half; it had been beaten as flat as they knew how to beat it; but the metal was of much more beauty to our men than the shape. Our officer soon let them see that he accepted the present, by laying it to his mouth and to his breast, which he found was the way when they liked anything. In short, our officer goes to work again, and in a little while he makes a little coronet for the queen, as he had done before, though less, and without asking leave of the king || went up to her and put it upon her head, and then gave her a little looking-glass, as he had done to the king, to look at herself. She was so surprised with this that she knew not what to do with herself; but to show her gratitude she pulled out another plate of gold || out of her own hair, and gave it to our officer; and not content with that, she sent one of her woman to the crowd of women that first attended her, and whether she stripped them of all the gold they had we know not, but she brought so many pieces, that when our men had them (for she gave all to them) they weighed almost two pounds weight. But this was not all; when she was thus dressed up she stepped forward, very nimbly and gracefully, towards the king to show him what she had got; and finding the king dressed up as fine as herself, they had work enough for near two hours to look at one another, and admire their new ornaments. Our men reported that the king was a tall, well-shaped man, of a very majestic deportment, only that when he laughed be showed his teeth too much, which however were as white as ivory. As for the queen, saving that her skin was of a tawny colour, she was a very pretty woman; very tall, a sweet countenance, admirable features, and, in a word, a completely handsome lady. She was very oddly dressed; she was quite naked from her head to below her breasts. Her breasts were plump and round, not flaggy and hanging down, as it is general with all the Indian women, some of whose breasts hang as low as had furnished. Her hair was black, and, as they supposed, very long, being wreathed up, twisted in long locks about the plate of gold she wore; and when she pulled off the plate of gold as above, it hung down her back and upon her shoulders gracefully enough; but it seems she did not think so, for as soon as she found it so fallen down, she caused one of her women to roll it all up and tie it in a great knot, which hung down in her neck, and did not look so well as when it was loose. While the king and the queen were conversing together about their fine things as above, our men went back to their boat where they left the purchase they had got, and furnished themselves with other things fit to traffic with, as they saw occasion; and they were not quite come up to the king again, when they perceived that the men the king had sent up into the country were returned, and that they brought with them a great quantity of such provisions as they had, which chiefly consisted in roots and maize, or Indian corn, and several fruits which we had never seen before: some of them resembled the large European figs, but were not really figs; with some great jars of water, having herbs steeped in it, and roots, that made it look as white as milk, and drank like milk sweetened with sugar, but more delicious, and exceedingly cool and refreshing. They brought also a great quantity of oranges, but they were neither sweet nor sour, and our men believed they were not ripe; but when they were dressed after the manner of the country, which they showed our men how to do: that is to say, to roast them in the fire, they eat admirably well, and our men brought a great many away to us, and when we roasted them, they exceeded all that ever I tasted. As After our men had received what they brought, and shown that they were acceptable to them, the king made signs that he would be gone, but would come again to them the next morning, and ' pointing to the queen's head, where the plate of gold had been that she gave to our men, intimated that he would bring some of that with him the next day; but while he was making these signs one of his other messengers came back and gave the king something into his hand, wrapped up, which our men could not see. soon as the king had it, as if he had been proed to show our men that he could make himself and his queen as fine as they could make them, he pulled it out, and first put it on his queen, (a short thing like a robe,) which reached from her neck, for he put it over her head, only down to the spotted skin which she wore before, and so it covered her shoulders and breast. It was made of an infinite number and variety of || feathers, oddly and yet very curiously put to gether, and was spangled, as we may call it, all over, with little drops or lumps of gold, some no bigger than a pin's head, which had holes made through them and were strung six or seven together, and so tied on to the feathers; some as big as a large pea, hanging single, some as big as a horse bean, and beaten flat, and all hanging promiscuously among the feathers without any order or shape; which, notwithstanding, were very beautiful in the whole, and made the thing look rich and handsome enough. As soon as he had thus equipped his queen, he put the other on upon himself, which, as it was larger, so it had a particular in its shape, namely, that it covered his arms almost to his elbows, and was so made that it came round under the arm, and being fastened there with a string, made a kind of sleeve, As the king's robe, or whatever it may be called, was larger, (for it came down to his waist,) so it had a great deal more gold about it, and larger pieces than what the queen wore. When their majesties had thus put on their robes, you may guess how glorious they looked, but especially the queen, who, being a most charming, beautiful creature before, was much more so, when she glittered thus all with gold. Our men looked very narrowly to observe whether there were no diamonds, and particularly whether any pearl was among their finery, but they could not perceive any. In this manner they parted for that evening; but the people did not leave them so, for they thronged about them, and some brought them jars of the white liquor, some brought them roots, some fruits, some one thing and some another; and our men gave every one of them some small matter or other in proportion to what they brought. At last there came four particularly tall lusty men, with bows and arrows, but before they came close up to our men, they laid down their bows and arrows on the ground and came forward with all the tokens of friendship they were able to make. They had two youths with them, each of which led a tame fawn of pretty large growth, and when the men came up they gave the two fawns to our men, who, in return, gave each of them a knife and some strings of beads, and such toys as they had. Our men observed that all these men had little bits of gold, some of one shape and some of another, hanging at their ears; and when our men came to be familiar, they asked them as well as they could where they found that stuff, and they made signs to the sand in the river, and then pointed towards that part of the country where our ships lay, which signified to our men that the gold was most of it where we lay, not there, where the king and queen resided. Nay, when our men pointed again to the river where they were, and went and took up some of the sand, as if they would look for gold in it, they made signs of laughing at it, and that there was nothing to be found there, but that it lay all the other way. And yet two or three of the men, who, when the tide was out, went up the bank of the river two or three miles upon the sands, peeping and trying the sands as they went, found three or four little bits of pure gold in the sand, though not bigger than pin's heads; but no doubt, farther up the country, they might have found more. These four men, seeing how fond our people were of the gold, made signs that they could fetch gold for them if they would give them such things as they liked; and ours again told them they should have anything they pleased, and as earnest gave them pieces of iron and bits of glass of small value, both of which they were much delighted with beforehand. Early in the morning their four customers came again, and brought several men, who seemed to be servants, along with them, laden with refreshments, such as the white water mentioned above, which they brought in earthen pots, very hard, but made so by the sun, not by any fire. They brought also three small deer with them, and a kind of coney or rabbit, but larger, which our men were very glad of. But that which was above all the rest, they brought a good quantity of gold dust, that is to say, some in small lumps, some in bigger, and one of them had nearly a pound weight, wrapped up in a piece of coney skin, which was all so very small that it was like dust, which, as our men understood afterwards, was reckoned of little worth, because all the bigger lumps had been picked out of it. Our men, you may be sure, were very willing to trade for this commodity, and therefore they brought out a great variety of things to truck with them, making signs to them to pick out what they liked, but still keeping a reserve for the king and queen, whom they expected. Above all, they had made a reserve for the king of some extraordinary hatchets, which they had not yet suffered to be seen, with a hammer or two, and some drinking glasses and the like, with some particular toys for the queen. But they had variety enough besides this for the four men, who, in short, bought so many trinkets and trifles, that our men not only got all the gold they brought, but the very pieces of gold out of their ears; in return for which our men gave every one of them a pair of ear-rings to hang about their ears, with a fine drop, some of green glass, some red, some blue, and they were wonderfully pleased with the exchange, and went back, we may venture to say, much richer than they came. As soon as these had finished their market, and indeed a little before, they perceived at a distance the king and the queen, coming with a great retinue, so they made signs to our men that they must be gone, and that they would not have the king know that they had been there. I must confess the relation of all this made me very much repent that I had not happened to have put in there with the ships; though, indeed, as the road lay open to the east and south winds, it might have been worse another way, I mean when the storm blew. However, as it is, I must report this part from the account given us by my men. When the king and queen came the second time they came together, and dressed up, as our men supposed, with the utmost magnificence, having the fine feathered spangled things about their shoulders, and the king had over all his habit a fine spotted robe of deer skins, neatly joined together, and which, as he managed it, covered him from head to foot; and, in short, it was so very beautiful that he really looked like a king with it. When he came to our men and the ceremony of their meeting was over, the king, turning round, showed them that he had brought them stores of provisions, and indeed so he had, for he had at least fifty men attending him, laden with roots, and oranges, and maize, and such things; in short, he brought them above twenty thousand oranges, a great parcel of that fruit like a fig, which I mentioned above, and other fruits; after which another party followed, and brought twenty live deer, and as many of their rabbits dead; the latter as big as our hares. As they came up, the king made signs to our men to take them; and our officer making signs to thank his majesty, he orders one of the attendants to give him one of the feathered robes, such an one as the king himself had on, and made mighty fine with lumps and tassels of gold, as the other; and the tawny lass advancing to him, offered to put it over his head, but he took it in his hand and put it on himself, and looked as like a jackpudding in it as any one could desire, for it made no figure at all upon him, compared to what it did upon the Indians. When they had received all this, they could not but make a suitable return; and therefore our officer caused his reserve to be brought out; and first he gave his majesty a dozen very handsome drinking-glasses, of several sizes, with half-adozen glass beakers, or cups, to the queen, for the same use. Then he gave the king a little hanger, and a belt to wear by his side, and showed him how to buckle it on and take it off, and how to draw it out and put it in again. This was such a present, and the king was so delighted with it, that our officer said, he believed the king, for two hours together, did nothing but draw it and put it up again, put it on and pull it off, and the like. Besides this, he gave the king three hatchets, and showed them the uses of them; also, two hammers and a pair of very large shears, particularly showing him, that with those hammers they might beat out the gold lumps which they found in the rivers, and with the sheers might cut the edges round, or into what shape they pleased, when they were beaten thin. || and a pair of scissars; then he would sew some things together, and cut them asunder again several times, and laugh most heartily at the ingenuity of it. Besides these things, they gave her majesty a pair of ear-rings, to hang on her ears, the glass in them looking green like an emerald; a ring of silver with false stones in it, like a rose diamond ring, the middle stone red like a ruby, which she went presently and gave to the king; but our officers made signs that he had one that was bigger for the king, and accordingly gave the king one that was much larger. And now they had done giving presents, as they thought, when the king made a sign to the queen, which she understood, and calling one of her women, she brought a small parcel, which the queen gave our officer into his hand; wherein was about eleven pounds weight of gold-dust, but, as before, no big lumps in it. Our men having thus finished their traffic, and being about to come away, they made signs to the king, that they would come again and bring him more fine things, at which the king smiles, and pointed to the gold, as if telling them he would have more of that for them when they came again. Our men had now their expectations fully answered; and as I said, had ended their traffic, and taking leave of the king and all his retinue, retired to their shallop, and the king and queen going away to their city as above; the wind blowing northerly, they were seven days before they got down to us in the ship, during which time they had almost famished the deer they had left, five of which they had kept to bring us alive, and yet they went two or three times on shore to get food for them by the way. We were all glad to see them again, and I had a great deal of reason to be satisfied with the account of their traffic, though not so much with their discovery; for they were not able to give us the least account whether the land was a continent or an island. But let that be how it will, it is certainly a country yet unfrequented by any of the Christian part of mankind, and perhaps may ever be so, and yet be as rich as any other part of the world yet discovered. The mountains in most of the islands, as well as of the main land in those parts, abounding in gold or silver, and no question, as well worth searching after as the coast of Guinea, where, though the quantity they find is considerable, yet, it is at this time sought after by so many, and the negrocs taught so well hos to value it, that but a little is brought away at a time, and so much given for it, that computing the charge of the voyage, is oftentimes more than it is worth. To the queen he gave six little knives, and a dozen small looking-glasses for her ladies. Six pair of scissars, and a small box full of large needles; he then gave her some coarse brown thread, and showed her how to thread the needle, and sow anything together with the thread; all which she admired exceedingly, and called her tawny maids of honour about her, that they might learn also. And whilst they were standing all together, our officer (to make the king laugh) sewed two of her women to one another by the lap of their waistcoats, or what else it might be called; and when they were a little surprised at it, and began (as he thought) to be a little uneasy, he took the scissars, and at one snap, set them at liberty again; which passed for such an extraordinary I reckon, that including the gold our shallop piece of dexterity, that the king would needs brought, and what we got on shore where we have two of them sewed together again, on pur-lay, we brought away about twenty-four pound pose to see it cut again; and then the king de- weight of gold, the expense of which we could sired he might have a needle and thread himself, not value at above ten or eleven pounds in Eng Whereas, though it is true that what gold is! found here is a great way off, yet I am persuaded such quantities are to be had, and the price given for it so very trifling, that it would be well worth searching for. land, put it all together, and reckoning for all || the provisions we got there, which supplied us for twenty days after we came away. For while our shallop was making her visit thus to the royal family, &c., as is related, our men were not idle on shore, but partly by trade with the natives, and by washing the sands in the small rivers, we got such a quantity of gold as well satisfied us for the stay we made. morning, and by eight o'clock were under sail; by ten we had doubled the point I mentioned above, and stood away S., keeping the shore on board, at the distance of about two leagues west. The next day, the officer who had been with the shallop showed us the opening or mouth where he put in, and where he had made his traffic with the king of the country, as you have heard. We went on for two days more, and still we found the land extending itself south, till the third day in the morning, we were a little surprised to find ourselves as it were embayed, being in the bottom of a deep gulf, and the land appearing right a-head, distance about three leagues, the coast having turned away to the east and by south, very high land, and mountainous, and the tops of some of the hills covered We had been about eighteen days here when our shallop returned, and we stayed a week more, trafficking with the people; and I am persuaded, if we had a mind to have settled there, and stay till now, we should have been very welcome to the people. We saw neither horse or cow, mule, ass, dog or cat, or any of our European sort of creatures (except that our men shot some wild ducks, and wigeon, exactly the same which we see in England, and very fat and good, but much | easier to shoot that in England, having never been acquainted with the flash and noise of guns, Our second mate and the boatswain, upon this as ours have been). We also found a sort of par-discovery, were for coming about, and sent to me tridge in the country, not much unlike our own, and a great many of the whistling plover, the same with ours. with snow. for orders to make signals to the other ship and our brigantine, who were both a-head to do the like; but I, who was willing to acquaint myself as fully as I could with the coast of the country, which I made no question I should have occasion to come to again, said, "No, no, I will see a little further first. So I run on, having an easy gale at N. E., and good weather, till I came within about a league and a half of the shore, when I found that in the very bite or nook of the bay, there was a great inlet of water, which either must be a passage or strait between the land we had been on shore upon; which in that case must be a great island, or that it must be the mouth of some extraordinary great river. Though this month's stay was unexpected, yet we had no reason to think our time ill spent. However, we did not think we ought to lie here too long, whatever we got; so we weighed and stood off to sea, steering still S. E., keeping the shore of this golden country in sight, till our men told us they found the land fall off to the south; then we steered away more southerly for six or eight days, not losing sight of land all the time, till by an observation we found we were in the latitude of thirty-four degrees and a half, south of the line; our meridian distance from the Ladrones, twenty-two degrees, thirty minutes east; when a fresh gale of wind springing up at south and by east, obliged us to haul close for that evening; at night it blew such a storm that we were obliged to yield to the force of it, and go away afore it to the N., or N. by W., till we came to that point of land we passed before; here, the land tending to the west, we ran in under the lee of a steep shore, and came to an anchor in twenty-five fathom water, being the same country we were in before. Here we rode very safe for five days, the wind continuing to blow very hard all the time from the south-immediately tacked to stand off, but found a east. This was a discovery too great to be omitted, so I ordered the brigantine to stand in with an easy sail, and see what account could be had of the place. Accordingly they stood in, and we followed about a league, and then lay by, waiting their signals. I had particularly ordered them to keep two boats a-head to sound the depth all the way, and they did so; and how it happened we know not, but on a sudden we heard the sloop fire two guns first, and then one gun; the first was a signal to us to bring to, and come no further, the next was a signal of distress. We strong current setting directly into the bite, and there not being wind enough for us to stem the current, we let go our anchor in twenty-two fathom water. My men would fain have had me gone a-shore again, and traffic with the people for more gold; but I, who was still in quest of further discoveries, thought I knew enough of this place to Immediately we manned out all the boats we tempt my friend the merchant, whose favourite had, great and small, to go and assist our bridesign was that of making new discoveries, togantine, not knowing what distress she might be another voyage there, and that was enough for me; so I declined going on shore again, except that we sent our boats for a recruit of fresh water; and our men, while they were filling it, || shot a brace of deer, as they were feeding by the side of a swamp, or moist ground; and also some wild ducks. Here we set up a great wooden cross, and wrote on it the names of our ships and commanders, and the time that we came to an anchor there. in; and they found she had driven up, as we were like to have done, too far into the channel of a large river, the mouth of which, being very broad, had several shoals in it; and though she had dropped her anchor just upon notice which the boats who were sounding gave her. yet she tailed aground upon a sand, and stuck fast; our men made no doubt but she would be lost, and began to think of saving the provisions and ammunition out of her. The two long-boats ac But we were obliged to a farther discoverycordingly began to lighten her; and first they of this country than we intended, by the followng accident:-We had unmoored early in the took in her guns, and let out all her casks of water: then they began to take in her great |