DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0486
448 ADVENTURES OF THE CREW OF THE WAGER.
a pair of spurs, a brass pan, ostrich feathers, &c. and
Sometimes played away at dice.
We remained here near a month, when the several
parties returned from hunting, and joined us, each
bringing the horses they had taken into the common
stock, amounting to about 1500, some of which were
scarcely inferior to the best of our European breed. We
set out for their chief town, where their king lived, being
about a thousand miles from our hut, and were four
months on our journey. Our food was horse-flesh, which
some chose raw, others boiled or roasted, and never
wanted water, the Indians being acquainted with every
small rivulet, which by strangers could not easily be
found.
At the end of our journey, after our captors had dis-
patched their affairs, they were carrying us with them
to their own houses, and had proceeded some miles,
when we were overtaken by a party of horse, who
brought us back ; the king claiming us as his property.
This town consists of about thirty huts, built low and ir-
regular, with poles and horse skins, surrounded with
pallisades about three feet from each other, and con-
taining about four score inhabitants. His Majesty re-
ceived us in his hut sitting on the ground, with a javelin
on one side, and a bow and arrow on the other: he had
a loose mantle round his waist, a sort of turret of feathers
on his head, and a long reed pipe in his mouth smoak?
ing. Ele asked us proper questions in bad Spanish, of
which we understood a little. We told him we were
Englishmen, wrecked in the South Sea, in an English
man of war, going to fight our enemies the Spaniards,
together with the rest of our history.—When he found
we were at war with the Spaniards, he expressed great
joy, and asked if we were great men in our country.—•
Wg answered ip the affirmative.—He said the Spaniards
were.
a pair of spurs, a brass pan, ostrich feathers, &c. and
Sometimes played away at dice.
We remained here near a month, when the several
parties returned from hunting, and joined us, each
bringing the horses they had taken into the common
stock, amounting to about 1500, some of which were
scarcely inferior to the best of our European breed. We
set out for their chief town, where their king lived, being
about a thousand miles from our hut, and were four
months on our journey. Our food was horse-flesh, which
some chose raw, others boiled or roasted, and never
wanted water, the Indians being acquainted with every
small rivulet, which by strangers could not easily be
found.
At the end of our journey, after our captors had dis-
patched their affairs, they were carrying us with them
to their own houses, and had proceeded some miles,
when we were overtaken by a party of horse, who
brought us back ; the king claiming us as his property.
This town consists of about thirty huts, built low and ir-
regular, with poles and horse skins, surrounded with
pallisades about three feet from each other, and con-
taining about four score inhabitants. His Majesty re-
ceived us in his hut sitting on the ground, with a javelin
on one side, and a bow and arrow on the other: he had
a loose mantle round his waist, a sort of turret of feathers
on his head, and a long reed pipe in his mouth smoak?
ing. Ele asked us proper questions in bad Spanish, of
which we understood a little. We told him we were
Englishmen, wrecked in the South Sea, in an English
man of war, going to fight our enemies the Spaniards,
together with the rest of our history.—When he found
we were at war with the Spaniards, he expressed great
joy, and asked if we were great men in our country.—•
Wg answered ip the affirmative.—He said the Spaniards
were.