to take it so to heart, that he refused to eat, and, in two days after, followed her. The captain, on his return to Bombay, reporting this to the governor, was by him asked, what he had done with the bodies; he said, he had flung them over-board. Being further asked, why he did not keep them in spirits, he replied bluntly, he did not think of it. Upon this the governor wrote afresh to Vencajee, and desired him to procure another couple, at any rate, as he should grudge no expense to be master of such a curiosity. Vencajees answer was, He would very willingly oblige him, but that he was afraid it would not be in his power: that these creatures came from a forest, about seventy leagues up the country, where the inhabitants catch them on the skirts of it; but they were so exquisitely cunning and shy, that this scarcely happened once. in a century.
If the above relation, concludes our author, should be true, as there is no reason to doubt it, we have here a proof, that the existence of pygmies is not entirely fabulous, as nothing can nearer approach the description of them.[1]
- ↑ Vol. I, page 231, &c.
