Cape Blanco; a sandy shore stretches between the two; up to the
river the sailor sees from the shore only the wandering Azaneguys,
tawny, squat, and miserable savages; across the stream to the south are
the real Blacks, "well built noble-looking men," and after so long a
stretch of arid and stony desert, there is now a beautiful green land,
covered with fruit-bearing trees, the work of the river, which, men
say, comes from the Nile, being one of the four most glorious rivers of
earth that flow from the Garden of Eden and earthly paradise. For as the
eastern Nile waters Egypt, so this doth water AEthiopia.

Now the land of these negroes is at the entering in of AEthiopia, from
which to Cape Verde the land is all level, where the King of Senegal,
reigning over people that have no cities, but only scattered huts, lives
by the presents that his subjects bring him. Such are oxen, goats, and
horses, which are much valued for their scarceness, but used without
saddle, bridle, or trappings. To these presents the King adds what he
can plunder by his own strength, especially slaves, of which the Blacks
have a great trade with the Azaneguys. Their horses they sell also to
the Christian traders on the coast. The King can have as many wives as
he likes (and always keeps well above his minimum of thirty), to each of
whom is assigned a certain estate with slaves and cattle, but not equal;
to some more, to others less. The King goes the round of these farms at
will, and lives upon their produce. Any day you may see hosts of slaves
bringing fruits of all sorts to the King, as he goes through the country
with his motley following, all living at free quarters.

Of the negroes of these parts most go naked, but the chiefs and great
men use cotton shirts, as the country abounds in this sort of stuff.
Cadamosto describes in great detail the native manufacture of garments,
and the habits of the women; barefoot and bare-headed they go always,
dressed in linen, elegant enough in apparel, vile in life and diet,
always chattering, great liars, treacherous and deceitful to the last
degree. Bloody and remorseless are the wars the princes of these
barbarians carry on against one another. They have no horsemen or body
armour, but use darts and spears, barbed with many poisonous fangs, and
several kinds of arrows, as with us. From the beginning of the world
they knew nothing of ships before the Portuguese came; they only used
light canoes or skiffs, e