TESTIMONIES OF THE AMAZON ad. 



1518. 



for a long time. These kinde of people do make their 

 houses with upper roomes, and they sleepe in them, as 

 also al their habitation is in the upper roomes, and that 

 which is belowe, they leave open : and also they use 

 certaine mantels of cotten wooll, and these they tie at 

 the endes with ropes, and the one ende of the rope 

 they make fast to one part of the house, and the other 

 ende to the other part of the house: and in these they 

 lye, which bee their beddes, and these kinde of beds 

 bee used in all India, and there is not in any part of 

 India any chambers that the people do use to lodge in 

 aloft from the ground, nor they make any hie roomes, 

 but only in this part of India: & in al other places 

 they make their houses without any loftes or chambers, 

 and they cover their houses with the leaves of date- 

 trees, and of grasse. And from this fresh water sea [III. 700.] 

 unto Paria, the coast lyeth West Northwest, and is so 

 ful of sholds that the ships cannot come neer to the 

 land. There are from this river to Paria 250 leagues. 

 In this fresh water sea, the tydes do ebbe & flow as 

 much as they do in Britayne, and it standeth in 6 de- 

 grees and a halfe. Paria standeth on the other side of 

 the Equinoctial toward the North, in seven degrees : 

 In Paria the sea floweth but little, and from Paria 

 towards the West, the sea doth not flow. From the 

 entry of the gulfe of Paria unto the Cape that lyeth 

 towards the West, are 2S leagues, and from thence the 

 coast turneth towardes the Northeast other i,§ leagues, 

 & from thence the coast turneth toward the West. 

 Before this gulfe standeth the Island of Trinidad, and 

 towards the West doeth appeare the gulfe of Paria like 

 to halfe a round circle, after the fashion of a Diameter, 

 and at the end of this circle is the entery in of Paria, 

 & at this entery there is betweene the land and the 

 Island 8 leagues, and on the other side there is but 

 litle space betweene the Hand and the land, but it is 

 deepe, and hath a good entry : this Hand of Trinidad 

 hath in length 25 leagues, and as many in bredth, and 



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