neither had they any knowledge of such; for when our people showed them a
naked sword, they ignorantly grasped it by the edge. Neither had they any
knowledge of iron, as their javelins were merely constructed of wood,
having their points hardened in the fire, and armed with a piece of
fish-bone. Some of them had scars of wounds on different parts, and,
being asked by signs how these had been got, they answered by signs that
people from other islands came to take them away, and that they had been
wounded in their own defence. They seemed ingenious and of a voluble
tongue, as they readily repeated such words as they once heard. There was
no kind of animals among them excepting parrots, which they carried to
barter with the Christians among the articles already mentioned, and in
this trade they continued on board the ships till night, when they all
returned to the shore.

In the morning of the next day, being October 13th, many of the natives
returned on board the ships in their boats or canoes, which were all of
one piece hollowed like a tray from the trunk of a tree; some of these
were so large as to contain forty or forty-five men, while others were so
small as only to hold one person, with many intermediate sizes between
these extremes. These they worked along with paddles formed like a
baker's peel or the implement which is used in dressing hemp. These oars
or paddles were not fixed by pins to the sides of the canoes like ours,
but were dipped into the water and pulled backward as if digging. Their
canoes are so light and artfully constructed that if overset they soon
turn them right again by swimming; and they empty out the water by
throwing them from side to side like a weaver's shuttle, and when half
emptied they ladle out the rest with dried calabashes cut in two, which
they carry for that purpose.

This second day the natives, as said before, brought various articles to
barter for such small things as they could procure in exchange. Jewels or
metals of any kind were not seen among them, except some small plates of
gold which hung from their nostrils; and on being questioned from whence
they procured the gold, they answered by signs that they had it from
the south, where there was a king who possessed abundance of pieces and
vessels of gold; and they made our people to understand that there were
many other islands and large countries to the south and southwest. They
were very covetous to get possession of anything