PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES 



they found a quantity of beautiful and varied fruits, and trees, and pines of re- 

 markable height and size, that would be too large for the masts of the largest 

 ship that sails the sea. Here is no corn of "any kind, but the people of the 

 country live, they say, on nothing but fishing and hunting animals, of which 

 the country has abundance. There are very large stags [i.e., caribou, Cana- 

 dian reindeer] with long hair, whose skin they use for clothes and for making 

 houses and boats; there are also wolves, foxes, tigers [lynxes?], and sables. 

 They declare, what seems strange to me, that there are as many pelerine fal- 



Modena. The network of compass lines omitted. 



cons as there are sparrows in our country; and I have seen them, and they are 

 very handsome. Of the men and women of that place they took about fifty 

 by force, and have brought them to the King; I have seen, touched, and ex- 

 amined them. To begin with their size, I may say that they are a little big- 

 ger than our countrymen, with well-proportioned and shapely limbs, while 

 their hair is long according to our custom, and hangs in curly ringlets, and 

 they have their faces marked with large figures like those of the Indians. 

 Their eyes have a shade of green, and, when they look at you, give the 

 whole face a very wild aspect. Their speech is not to be understood, but it is 

 without harshness, rather is it human. Their conduct and manners are very 

 gentle, they laugh a good deal, and show much cheerfulness; and this is 



