ARRIVAL OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. 



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" jem demtro he tarn grande e tarn fremosa, e tam segura, que podem jaser demtro 

 " neela mats dc duzentos navios e naaos"* He says the Indians were quite 

 naked, and their bodies painted with various colours. They wore pendants of white 

 bone from their ears. Their cheeks were in like manner ornamented with 

 bones, and their lips slit, into which similar ornaments were also introduced. They 

 used bows and arrows. The two natives who came on board, when they saw 

 the gold embroidery upon the collar of Cabral's coat, danced, put their hands 

 to the ground, and then to the collar : they showed the same feeling in regard 

 to silver ; from which it was inferred that those precious metals were not 

 unknown to them. This letter also says, " Mostraram Ihes huum papagayo 

 " pardo que aquy ho capitam tras; tomaram no logo na maao; mostraram Ihes 

 " huum carneyro, non fezeram delle mengam ; mostraram Ihes huuma galinha, e asy 

 " aviam medo dela, e mm Ihe queriam poeer ha maao."-\ The Portuguese offered 

 them bread,- dressed fish, and other things, which on tasting they put out of 

 their mouths ; also wine, which they did not like, and would not take it a 

 second time. They established a friendly intercourse with those Indians, from 

 whom they received in exchange for trifling articles, fruits, farinha (or flour) 

 of the mandioca, maize, &c. This writer, with many of the captains, went a 

 league and a half up the country, where they met with a body of Indians, who 

 had nine or ten houses rudely built of wood covered with grass ; each house had 

 two small entrances, and was large enough to receive thirty or forty persons. It 

 consisted of but one apartment, without any division. They bartered with them 

 things of no value for large and beautiful red parrots, two small green ones, and 

 other things. They went on shore again the next day to get wood and wash 

 linen, when they found sixty or seventy Indians, without bows or any thing else, 

 upon the beach, which number soon increased to two hundred, all without bows 

 and arrows. They mixed amongst the Portuguese, and assisted them to collect 

 wood and put it on board the boats. That Cabral considered this land an 

 island is evidenced by the conclusion of the letter, " Beijo haas maaos de 



* " The said small vessels found a reef with a port within, very fine and very secure, with a very 

 large entrance, and they put themselves within it." Also, " and all the ships entered and an- 

 chored in five and six fathoms, which anchorage within is so grand, so beaqtiful, and so secure, 

 that there could lie within it more than two hundred ships and men of war." 



t " We showed them a grey parrot, which the captain had brought with him; they took it imme- 

 diately into their hands. We showed them a sheep, they took no notice of it. We showed them a 

 fowl ; they were afraid of it, and ivould not put their hands upon it." 



