he had seen service at sea as a member of a military order; he 

 was — as revealed in his writing— a man of unflagging curiosity, 

 capable of absorbing observations and scrupulous in recording 

 experiences. He not only kept a journal but also carried a note- 

 book whenever he went ashore. Communication with natives was 

 one of his gifts, as is shown by his inclusion of four native 

 vocabularies in his Relation. 



On a Sunday, Pigafetta writes, he went ashore "to see how the 

 cloves grow." His descriptions here of both cloves and nutmegs 

 could well be include in any botanical text. 



The juxtaposition of these descriptions with that of the making 

 of bark cloth suggests that possibly he saw it made on this same 

 excursion. "The women," he states, "go naked like the others, 

 with these cloths of bark, and those cloths are made after this 

 fashion. They take a piece of bark, which they soak in water until 

 it is soft, then they beat it with wood so that it becomes as long and 

 as wide as they wish. And it is like a cloth of raw silk, with threads 

 in it making it appear as if woven." 



This and the following references to bark cloth are from the 

 Beinecke-Yale manuscript, in French, translated and edited by R. 

 A. Skelton. 



Pigafetta's comments on bark cloth present puzzling contrasts 

 of the accurate and the mistaken. For example, he describes "a 

 bark as thin and supple s paper, which grows between the wood 

 and the bark of the palm tree." To this exact description of bast 

 fiber he adds that the palm is its source. Since palms have neither 

 bast nor bark (as these structures are defined botanically), why 

 does Pigafetta state in other passages as well as here that the palm 

 provides the material for the manufacture of bark cloth whereas 

 in some passages, he does not mention the palm? 



Girl musicians wear "a garment made of the said palm cloth." A 

 queen's attendants are naked . . . except that their shameful parts 

 were covered by a cloth made from the palm tree .... The people of 

 a certain island wear... only a piece of cloth made of palm 

 around their shameful parts." 



On the other hand, in two other descriptions of clothing, he 

 refers to "cloth made of the bark of trees" and "the women are 



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