by Daniel Defoe
seventeen oreighteen ounces, for which they had bartered toys and trifles, as wedid; but they found no rivers, where they could discover any gold inthe sands, as We had done, so that they believed it all came from theside where we were.
But our other shallop had much better luck; she went away to the east,and by the time she had gone about sixteen leagues she found the shorebreak off a little, and soon after a little more, until at length theycame as it were to the land's end; when, the shore running due south,they followed, according to their account, near thirteen leagues more.
In this interval they went several times on shore, entered three rivers,indifferently large, and one of them very large at the mouth, but grewnarrow again in three or four leagues; but a deep channel, withtwo-and-twenty to eight-and-twenty fathom water in it all the way, asfar as they went.
Here they went on shore and trafficked with the natives, whom they foundrude and unpolished, but a very mild inoffensive people; nor did theyfind them anything thievish, much less treacherous, as in some countriesis the case. They had the good luck to find out the place where, as theysupposed, the king of the country resided; which was a kind of a city,encompassed all round, the river making a kind of double horse-shoe. Themanner of their living is too long to describe; neither could our mengive any account of their government, or of the customs of the place;but what they sought for was gold and provisions, and of those they gotpretty considerable quantities.
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 atruce, and to make them understand what they meant by it.
At length a truce being established, the king came, and with him nearthree hundred men; and soon after the queen, with half as many women.They were not stark naked, neither men nor women, but wearing a loosepiece of cloth about their middles; what it was made of we could notimagine, for it was neither linen or woollen, cotton or silk; nor was itwoven, but twisted and braided by hand, as our women make bone lace withbobbins. 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 ourships, if we had wanted to make such an experiment.
When the king first came to our men they were a little shy of hiscompany, he had so many with him, and they began to retire; which theking 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 offtheir hats, but that he did not understand, for his men had no hats on.But the officer making a bow to him, he understood that presently, andbowed again; at which all his men fell down flat upon their faces, asflat to the ground as if they had been shot to death with a volley ofour shot; and they did not fall so quick but they were up again asnimbly, and then down flat on the ground again; and this they did threetimes, their king bowing himself to our men at the same time.
This ceremony being over, our men made signs to them that they wantedvictuals to eat, and something to drink: and pulled out several things,to let the people see they would give something for what they mightbring them.
The king understood them presently, and turning to some of his men hetalked awhile to them; and our men observed, that while he spoke theyseemed 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 mensupposed they went to fetch something that the king would give them;upon which, that they might be beforehand with them, our men presentedhis majesty with two pair of bracelets of fine glass beads of severalcolours, and put them upon his arms, which he took most kindly; and thenthey gave him a knife, with a good plain ivory handle, and some otherodd things. Upon receiving these _noble_ presents, he sends away anotherof his men, and a little after two more.
Our men observed that two of the men went a great way off toward thehill, 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 soonafter her majesty came with four women only attending her.
The officer who commanded our men, finding he should have another kindof compliment to pay the ladies, retired a little; and, being aningenious handy sort of a man, in less than half-an-hour, he and anotherof his men made a nice garland, or rather a coronet, of sundry stringsof beads, and with glass bobs and pendants, all hanging about it, mostwonderful gay; and when the queen was come, he went up to the king, andshowing it to him, made signs that he would give it to the queen.
The king took it, and was so pleased with the present, that truly hedesired our officer to put it upon his own head, which he did; but, whenhe had got it so placed, he let our men see he was king over his wife,as well as over the rest of the country, and that he would wear ithimself.
Our men then pulled out a little pocket looking-glass, and, holding itup, let his majesty see his own face, which we might reasonably supposehe had never seen before, especially with a crown on his head too.Before he saw his own face in the glass he was grave and majestic, andcarried it something like a king; but he was so delighted with thenovelty that he was quite beside himself, and jumped and capered anddanced about like a madman.
All this while our men saw nothing coming, but that all was given ontheir side; whereupon they made signs again, that they wantedprovisions.
The king then made signs, pointing to a hill a good way off, as if itwould come from thence very quickly; and then looked to see if hispeople were coming, as if he was impatient till they came, as well asour men.
During this time, one of our men observed that the queen had severalpieces of gold, as they thought them to be, hanging about her,particularly in her hair, and large flat plates of gold upon the hinderpart of her head, something in the place of a roll, such as our womenwear; that her hair was wound about it in rolls, braided together verycuriously; and having informed our officer, he made signs to the kingfor leave to give the queen something, which he consented to. So he wentto her majesty, making a bow as before; but this complaisance surprisedher, for, upon his bowing, on a sudden falls the queen and all her fourladies flat on the ground, but were up again in a moment; and our peoplewondered how they could throw themselves so flat on their faces, and nothurt themselves; nor was it less to be wondered at, how they could sosuddenly jump up again, for they did not rise up gradually as we mustdo, with the help of our hands and knees, if we were extended so flat onour faces, but they, with a spring, whether with their hands or theirwhole bodies, we knew not, sprang up at once, and were upon their feetimmediately.
This compliment over, our officer stepped up to the queen, and tiedabout her neck a most delicate necklace of pearl; that is to say, oflarge handsome white glass beads, which might in England cost aboutfourpence halfpenny, and to every one of her ladies he gave another ofsmaller beads, differing in colour from 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 ina kind of tassel, with a little knot of blue riband, which she was alsoextremely pleased with; and very fine she was.
The queen made, it seems, the first return; for, stepping to one of herwomen, our men observed that her attendant took something out of herhair, and then the queen let her tie her hair up again; after which hermajesty brought it and gave it to our officer, making signs to know ifit was acceptable. It was a piece of gold that weighed about two ouncesand a half; it had been beaten as flat as they knew how to beat it. Butthe metal was of much more beauty to our men than the shape.
Our officer soon let the queen and people see that he accepted thepresent, by laying it to his mouth and to his breast, which he found wasthe way when they liked anything. In short, our officer went to workagain, and in a little while he made a little coronet for the queen, ashe had done before for the king, though less; and, without asking leaveof his majesty, went up to her and put it upon her head; and then gaveher a little looking-glass, as he had done
to the king, that she mightview her face in it.
She was so surprised at the sight, that she knew not how to containherself; but, to show her gratitude, she pulled out another plate ofgold out of her own hair, and gave it to our officer; and, not contentwith that, she sent one of her women to the crowd of females who firstattended her, and whether she stripped them of all the gold they had, oronly a part, she brought so many pieces, that, when together, theyweighed almost two pounds.
When she was thus dressed she stepped forward very nimbly and gracefullytowards the king, to show him what she had got; and, finding he wasdressed as fine as herself, they had work enough for near two hours tolook at one another, and admire their new ornaments.
Our men reported, that the king was a tall, well-shaped man, of a verymajestic deportment, only that when he laughed he showed his teeth toomuch, which, however, were as white as ivory: as for the queen, savingthat her skin was of a tawny colour, she was a very pretty woman; verytall, a sweet countenance, admirable
