Afterwards
they came swimming to the boats, bringing parrots, balls of cotton
thread, javelins, and many other things which they exchanged for glass
beads and hawks' bells, which trade was carried on with the utmost good
will. But they seemed on the whole a very poor people. They all were
completely naked. All whom I saw were young, not above thirty years of
age, well made and with fine shapes and faces; their hair short and
coarse like that of a horse's tail, combed towards the forehead except a
small portion which they suffer to hang down behind and never cut. Some
paint themselves with black, others with white, others with red, others
with such colors as they can find. Some paint the face, some the whole
body. Others only the eyes, others only the nose. Weapons they have
none; nor are they acquainted with them. For I showed them swords which
they grasped by the blades and cut themselves through ignorance. They
have no iron, their javelins being without it, and no thing more than
sticks with fishbones or other thing at the ends. I saw some men with
scars of wounds upon their bodies and inquired by signs the cause of
these. They answered me by signs that other people came from islands in
the neighborhood and tried to make prisoners of them and they defended
themselves.
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