The smallest caravel started at once the very next morning after the
discovery to go upstream, taking a boat with it, in case the stream
should suddenly get too shallow for anything larger, while the sailors
were to keep sounding the river with their poles all the way. Everybody
too kept a sharp look-out for native canoes. They had not long to wait.
Two miles up the river three native "Almadias" came suddenly out upon
them and then stopped dead, too astonished at the ship and the white men
in it to offer to do more, though they had at first a threatening look
and were now invited to a parley by the Europeans with every sign that
could be thought of.
As the natives would not come any nearer, the caravel returned to the
mouth of the river, and next morning at about nine o'clock the whole
fleet started together upstream to explore "with the hope of finding
some more friendly natives by the kind care of Heaven." Four miles up
the negroes came out upon them again in greater force, "most of them
sooty black in colour, dressed in white cotton, with something like a
German helmet on their heads, with two wings on either side and a
feather in the middle. A Moor stood in the bow of each Almadia, holding
a round leather shield and encouraging his men in their thirteen canoes
to fight and to row up boldly to the caravels.
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