salt water. So great is the enmity between the two nations that every day there occurs strife. The king of the Gentiles is as powerful as the king of the Moors, but he is not so proud; and it seems that it would not be so difficult to introduce the Christian religion into his country.[1]
As we could not get back our men, we retained on board sixteen of the chiefs, and three ladies whom we had taken on board the junks, to take them to Spain, We had destined the ladies for the Queen; but Juan Carvalho kept them for himself.
The Moors of Burné go naked like the other islanders. They esteem quicksilver very much, and swallow it. They pretend that it preserves the health of those who are well, and that it cures the sick. They venerate Mahomed and follow his law. They do not eat pig's flesh.....[2] With their right hand they wash their face, but do not wash their teeth with their fingers. They are circumcised like the Jews. They never kill goats or fowls without first speaking to the sun.[3] They cut off the ends of the wings of fowls and the skin under their feet, and then split them in two. They do not eat any animal which has not been killed by themselves.
In this island is produced camphor, a kind of balsam which exudes from between the bark and the wood of the tree. These drops are small as grains of bran. If it is left exposed by degrees it is consumed: here it is called capor. Here is found also cinnamon, ginger, mirabolans, oranges, lemons, sugarcanes, melons, gourds, cucumbers, cabbage,
- ↑ The Portuguese introduced Christianity into this country, which lasted till 1590. Now the Gentiles have been obliged to abandon the sea-coast, and have retired to the mountains. Sonneral, Note of Milan edition.
- ↑ Here some details are omitted, which, with the whole of this paragraph, have been rewritten by Pigafetta, because he was an Italian, and not a Spaniard or Portuguese, in which case he would have been better informed.
- ↑ An error natural enough in an Italian.
