^ Portuguese Explorations 



fires, apparently to announce with their smoke that something 

 very unusual had occurred, and they seem to have conveyed 

 to him in some way the intelligence that no European ship 

 had ever come to their country before. But as in the same 

 narrative it is distinctly stated that it was impossible to under- 

 stand a word the people said, and as by their actions they 

 appear to have been neither hostile nor timid, there is not 

 much evidence in this to rebut the story of the earlier Norman 

 settlements farther down the coast. 



Beyond this cape De Sintra's ships travelled " about sixteen 

 miles," till they reached on the shore a wood formed of splendid 

 green trees which extended itself almost to the water. This 

 they called Bosque (or " Arvoredo ") Santa Maria. Here the 

 ships were brought to an anchor, and immediately several 

 canoes ^ came off to them. In each canoe were two or three 

 men, " quite naked," carrying pointed spears, darts, javelins, 

 bows, and here and there a shield of leather. Their ears were 

 pierced in several places, and apparently also the septum of 

 their noses, while their teeth were sharpened to a point. Not 

 a single word of their language could be understood, and 

 consequently when three of them boldly came on board one 



the first definite record of Liberian exploration is interesting for the purposes 

 of this book, it may be well to give Ca' da Mosto's actual words as recorded 

 by Ramusio in 1564: "Per la spiaggia si trova un capo che si mette molto al 

 mare, et sopra di questo capo pare un monte alto, et a questo capo hanno messo 

 nome il Capo del Monte. Ite77i oltra questo capo di Monte per la spiaggia andando 

 avanti circa miglia sessanta si trova un altro capo piccolo et non alto, il quale 

 anche mostra sopra d' esso haver un monticello, et a questo hanno messo nome, 

 il Capo Cortese 6 Misurado, et oltra questo capo a miglia sedici pur per la 

 spiaggia e un bosco grande con molti arbori verdissimi che beono fina su 1' acqua 

 del mare, al qual messono nome il Bosco overo Arboredo di Santa Maria, et 

 drieto di quello sorgetteno le caravelle," etc. 



' "Almadia" is the word used. This term, which is Arabo-Portuguese, was 

 employed from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries in Portuguese, Spanish, 

 Italian, and English to indicate "canoe," until it was replaced by the American 

 words canoa and pirogo. 



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