by Daniel Defoe
features, and, in a word, acomplete handsome lady.
She was very oddly dressed; she was quite naked from her head to belowher breasts; her breasts were plump and round, not flaggy and hangingdown, as it generally is with the Indian women, some of whose breastshang as low as their bellies, but projecting as beautifully as if theyhad been laced up with stays round her body; and below her breast shehad a broad piece of a skin of some curious creature, spotted like aleopard, probably of some fine spotted deer. This was wrapped round hervery tight, like a body-girt to a horse; and under this she had a kindof petticoat, as before described, hanging down to her ankles. As forshoes or stockings, they were only such as nature had furnished. Herhair was black, and, as supposed, very long, being wreathed up andtwisted in long locks about the plate of gold she wore; for when shepulled off the plate above mentioned, it hung down her back and upon hershoulders very gracefully; but it seems she did not think so, for, assoon as she found it so fallen down, she caused one of her women to rollit up, and tie it in a great knot which hung down in her neck, and didnot look so well as when it was loose.
While the king and the queen were conversing together about their finethings, as above, our men went back to the boat, where they left thepurchase they had got, and furnished themselves with other things fit totraffick with as they saw occasion; and they were not quite come up tothe king again, when they perceived that the men the king had sent upinto the country were returned, and that they brought with them a greatquantity of such provisions as they had, which chiefly consisted ofroots and maize, or Indian corn, and several fruits which we had neverseen before. Some of them resembled the large European figs, but werenot really figs; with some great jars of water, having herbs steeped init, and roots, that made it look as white as milk, and drank like milksweetened with sugar, but more delicious, and exceeding cool andrefreshing. They brought also a great quantity of oranges, but theywere neither sweet nor sour, and our men believed they were not ripe;but when they were dressed after the manner of the country, which theyshowed our men, and which was to roast them before the fire, they had anadmirable flavour, and our men brought a great many away to us, and whenwe roasted them they exceeded anything of the kind I had ever tasted.
After our men had received what was brought, and shown that the wholewas very acceptable, the king made signs that he would be gone, butwould come again to them the next morning; and, pointing to the queen'shead, where the plate of gold had been that she had given to our men,intimated that he would bring some of the same with him the next day.But while he was making these signs, one of his other messengers cameback, and gave the king something into his hand wrapped up, which ourmen could not see. As soon as the king had it, as if he had been proudto show our men that he could make himself and his queen as fine as theycould make him, he undid the parcel, and decked out his queen with ashort thing like a robe, which reached from her neck down to the spottedskin which she wore before, and so it covered her shoulders and breast.It was made of an infinite number and variety of feathers, oddly, andyet very curiously put together; and was spangled all over with littledrops or lumps of gold; some no bigger than a pin's head, which hadholes made through them, and were strung six or seven together, and sotied 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 hangingpromiscuously among the feathers, without any order or shape, which,notwithstanding, were very beautiful in the whole, and made the thinglook rich and handsome enough.
As soon as he had thus equipped his queen, he put another upon himself,which was larger, and had this particular in its shape, that it coveredhis arms almost to his elbows, and was so made that it came round underthe 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 longer, for itcame down to his waist, so it had a great deal more gold about it, andlarger pieces than that the queen wore. When their majesties had thusput on their robes, it may be guessed how glorious they looked, butespecially the queen, who being a most charming beautiful creature, assaid before, was much more so when glistening thus with gold. Our menlooked very narrowly to observe whether there were any diamonds orpearls among their finery, but they could not perceive any.
The king and queen now withdrew for that evening, but their people didnot leave our men so, for they thronged about them; and some broughtthem jars of the white liquor, some brought them roots, others fruits,some one thing, some another; and our men gave every one of them somesmall matter or other in proportion to what they brought. At last, therecame four particular tall lusty men, with bows and arrows; but beforethey came close up to our men, they laid down their bows and arrows onthe ground, and came forward with all the tokens of friendship they wereable to make.
They had two youths with them, each of whom led a tame fawn of prettylarge growth, and when the men came up, they gave the two fawns to ourmen; who, in return, gave each of them a knife, and some strings ofbeads, and such toys as they had.
Our men observed, that all these men had little bits of gold, some ofone shape, and some of another, hanging at their ears; and when our mencame to be familiar, they asked them as well as they could, where theyfound that stuff? and they made signs to the sand in the river, and thenpointed towards that part of the country where our ships lay, whichsignified to our men that the gold was, most of it, where we lay, notthere where the king and queen resided. Nay, when our men pointed againto the river where they were, and went and took up some of the sand, asif 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 theother way.
And yet two or three of the men, who, when the tide was out, went up thebank of the river, two or three miles upon the sands, peeping and tryingthe sands as they went, they found three or four little bits of puregold, though not bigger than pins heads; but no doubt farther up thecountry they might have found more.
These four men seeing how fond our people were of the gold, made signsthey could fetch gold to them if they would give them such things asthey liked; and ours again told them they should have anything theypleased; and, as earnest, gave them some pieces of iron and bits ofglass of small value, both which they were much delighted with.
Early in the morning their four customers came again, and broughtseveral men, who seemed to be servants, along with them, loaden withrefreshments, such as the white water, mentioned above, which theybrought in earthen pots, very hard, made so by the heat of the sun. Theybrought 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 aboveall 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 near a poundweight wrapped up in a piece of coney-skin, which was all so very smallthat it was like dust; which, as our men understood afterwards, wasreckoned little worth, because all the lumps had been picked out of it.
Our men, to be sure, were very willing to trade for this commodity, andtherefore they brought out great variety of things to truck with them,making signs to them to pick out what they liked; but still keeping areserve for the king and queen, whom they expected. Above all they hadmade a reserve for the king of some extraordinary hatchets, which theyhad not yet suffered to be seen, with a hammer or two, and somedrinking-glasses, and the like, with some particular toys for the queen.
But they had variety enough left besides for the four men: who, inshort, bought so many trinkets and trifles, that our men not only gotall the gold they brought, but the very pieces of gold out of theirears; in return for which our men gave them every one a pair ofear-rings, to hang about their ears, with a fine drop; some of greenglass, some red, some blue; and they were wonderfully pleased with theexchange, and went back, we may venture to say, much richer in opinionthan they came.
As soon as these people had done their market, and indeed a littlebefore, they perceived at a distance the king and queen coming with agre
at retinue; so they made signs to our men that they must be gone, andthat 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 thatI 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 beenworse another way; I mean, when the storm blew. However, as it is, Imust report this part, from the account given us by my men.
When the king and queen came the second time, they were together, anddressed up, as our men supposed, with the utmost magnificence, havingthe fine feathered spangled things about their shoulders; and the kinghad over all his habit, a fine spotted robe of deer skins, neatly joinedtogether; 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 aking with it.
When he came to our men, and the ceremony of their meeting was over, theking, turning round, showed them, that he had brought
