[ 



87a nieuhoff's brazil. 



the black water that was left he wafhed the wound, which foon after was healed, and 

 the patient cured. They are very dexterous at fwimming and diving, and will fetch a 

 fingle piece of eight from the bottom of the fea, where it is very deep. They are alfo 

 excellent filhermen, and get a great deal of money by it. They tie three or four great 

 pieces of wood together, this they manage with one oar, and upon it go a good way 

 into the fea, where they catch great quantities of fifh with their hooks, and fo return. 

 It happened in my time, that a certain negro, who was very expert in fifhing, was 

 fold three times in a little while ; this he took fo much to heart, that the next time he 

 went thus out a fifhing, he tied a Hone to his leg and drowned himfelf. Another 

 negro having conceived a hatred againft his mafter cut his throat, cut out his tongue, 

 and made a houfe of office of his mouth, according to his own confeffion ; he was 

 broken alive upon the wheel, which he endured with an incredible obftinacy. A 

 negro woman was brought to bed in my time of a child, the hair and fkin of which 

 were not black, but red. I favv alfo a young lad born from negro parentis whofe 

 fkin was white, and his hair and eye-brows the like, but curled, with a flat nofe like 

 the other negroes. Sometimes I have feen old negroes with long grey beards and hair, 

 which looks very fine. 



The natives of Brazil confifts of divers nations, diftinguifhed by their proper names, 

 to wit, the Tubinambos, Tobajaras, Petiguaras, and Tapuijas, or Tapuyers, or Tapoy- 

 ers. The three firft ufe one and the fame language, and differ only in the dialed ; 

 but the lafl are fubdivided into feveral nations, differing both in manners and tongue. 

 The Brazilian men, which lived among us and the Portuguefe, are middle-fized, 

 ftrong and well-made, with broad fhoulders. They have black eyes, a wide mouth, 

 with black curled hair, and a flat nofe ; the laft of which is not natural to them, but 

 the parents, looking upon it as a great beauty, fqueeze their children's nofes flat, 

 whilft they are very young. They paint their bodies, and fome likewife their faces 

 with divers colours ; they have generally no hair about their mouth, though fome 

 have black beards. Their women are likewife of a middle ftature, well limbed, and 

 not ill-featured ; they have likewife a black hair, but are not born black, but by the 

 heat of the fun-beams acquire by degrees a yellow brown colour. The Brazilians 

 come foon to maturity, and arrive to a great age, and that without diftempers j they 

 •ff^ alfo feldom become grey, which is likewife obfervable in many European inhabitants 

 here, who come to the age of one hundred or one hundred and twenty years. This 

 muft be chiefly attributed to the temperature of the climate, which is fuch, that in 

 former times many Spaniards that laboured under fome lingering diflemper, whether 

 in Spain or the Eafl: Indies, ufed to come to Brazil to partake of the benefit of that 

 excellent air and water ; it is true, moft of the children of foreigners are troubled 

 with lingering fickneffes, fo that fcarce one in three arrives to a ftate of manhood ; 

 but this muft not be attributed to the air, but rather to the bad nourifhment. Few 

 cripples or crooked people are to be met with among the Brazilians, they being gene- 

 r rally very ftraight and nimble, which is the more admirable, becaufe they never do their 

 \ children up in fwathling cloaths, except their feet, looking upon it as unwholefome. 

 Before the Dutch got footing in Brazil, the Portuguefe had made all the natives 

 their flaves, and looked upon it as the greateft piece of policy quite to extirpate them, 

 which they did fo effectually, that whereas about one hundred years ago, the captain- 

 fhips of Rio Grande alone could raife one hundred thoufand fighting men, fcarce 

 three hundred were to be met within 1645 ^^ 164.6, which had created a mortal 

 hatred in the Brazilians againft the Portuguefe ; though it muft alfo be confeffed, that 

 the late war and fome epidemical diftempers did fweep away many of the natives. 



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