had not
tasted a bit of bread, or any wholesome diet, for such a length of time.
After we could eat no longer, we went to sleep about the fire, which the
Indians took care to keep up. In the morning, the women came from far and
near, each bringing with her something. Almost every one had a pipkin in
her hand, containing either fowls or mutton made into broth, potatoes,
eggs, or other eatables. We fell to work as if we had eat nothing in the
night, and employed ourselves so for the best part of the day.

In the evening, the men filled our house, bringing with them some jars of a
liquor they called chica, made of barley-meal, and not very unlike our oat-
ale in taste, which will intoxicate those who drink a sufficient quantity
of it, for a little has no effect. As soon as the drink was out, a fresh
supply of victuals was brought in; and in this manner we passed the whole
time we remained with these hospitable Indians. They are a strong well-made
people, extremely well-featured, both men and women, and vastly neat in
their persons. The men's dress is called by them a puncho, which is a
square piece of cloth, generally in stripes of different colours, with a
slit in the middle of it, wide enough to let their heads through, so that
it hangs on their shoulders, half of it falling before and the other behind
them: Under this they wear a short kind of flannel shirt without sleeves or
neck. They have wide-knee'd breeches, something like the Dutch seamen, and
on their legs a sort of knit buskins without any feet to them, but never
any shoes. Their hair is always combed very smooth, and tied very tight up
in a great bunch close to the neck; some wear a very neat hat of their own
making, and others go without. The women wear a shift like the men's
shirts, without sleeves, and over it a square piece of cloth, which they
fasten before with a large silver pin, and a petticoat of different
stripes. They take as much care of their hair as the men; and both have
always a kind of fillet bound very tight about the fore-head, and made fast
behind. In short, these people are as cleanly as the several savage nations
we had met with before were beastly.

Upon our first coming here, they had dispatched a messenger to the Spanish
corregidore at Castro, a town a considerable distance from hence, to inform
him of our arrival. At the end of three days, this man returned with an
order to the chief caciques of these Indians we were amongst, to carry u