Eight of them
passed sixty leagues, 180 miles, beyond, and found a river, the Rio
Grande, "of good size enough," up which they sailed, except one ship,
belonging to a Bishop--the Bishop of Algarve--"for that this happened to
run upon a sand-bank, in such wise, that they were not able to get her
off, though all the people on board were saved with the cargo. And while
some of them were busy in this, others landed and found the country just
deserted by its inhabitants, and going on to find them, they soon
perceived that they had found a track, which they had chanced on near
the place where they landed."
They followed this track recklessly enough, and nearly met the fate of
Nuno Tristam. "For as they went on by that road, they came to a country
with great sown fields, with plantations of cotton trees and rice plots,
in a land full of hills like loaves, after which they came to a great
wood," and as they were going into the wood, the Guineas came out upon
them in great numbers, with bows and assegais and saluted them with a
shower of poisoned arrows. The first five Europeans fell dead at once,
two others were desperately wounded, the rest escaped to the ships, and
the ships went no farther that year.
Pages:
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313