The Discoveries of America to the Year 1525

by Arthur James Weise

“These people, although they appear ignorant as talkers, are very sagacious and crafty in any matter in which they are interested. They do not talk much, and when they do, it is in a low tone.... Their languages differ so much that we found people living within the space of a hundred leagues who could not understand one another’s speech.... They do not partake of food at appointed times nor in such quantities to satisfy them during equal intervals. Whenever their appetites demand food, whether in the middle of the night or day, it does not matter to them, they appease their hunger.... They take their food from earthen basins made by them, or from gourds cut in half.

“They sleep in certain nets made of cotton, very large, suspended in the air.... These people are clean and neat in their persons, for they are continually bathing.... They live together in common, and make their houses like cottages, which are very strongly built with the largest trees and covered with palm leaves.... We found one which contained six hundred persons, and we saw the occupants of thirteen houses, who must have numbered four thousand souls. New sites for these houses are selected every seven or eight years. When we asked why they changed the location of their dwellings, they said it was because the intense heat of the sun caused painful diseases to spread among them when the ground about their houses became permeated and foul with filth; which explanation seemed quite reasonable to us.

“The riches of these people are the feathers of birds of different colors, ornaments made of fish bones, and white and green stones, with which they adorn their cheeks, lips, and ears.... Some of these people, when they inter their dead, place water and food at the head of the corpse.... In some parts of the country there is a very inhuman custom of disposing of a person about to die. His relatives carry him into a great wood, and, fastening one of their sleeping nets to two trees, put him in it. Having swung him in it during the day, they, at the approach of night, depart to their homes, leaving with him water and food sufficient for his wants during the succeeding five or six days. Should the ill man partake of the provisions and recover sufficient strength to enable him to make his way back to the village, his relatives honor his return with ceremony....

“For their infirmities they have various kinds of medicine very different from those we use.... I often observed that when a person was stricken with fever and grew worse, that they bathed him with much cold water from head to foot, and then built a great fire around him, and made him walk about the inclosed space for an hour or two until he became quite fatigued, when they allowed him to sleep. Many were cured by this treatment.... Blood-letting is an art known to them. They do not take blood from the arm except in the arm pit. They generally take it from the loins or the calf of the leg.... They have no grain seed nor corn, but use instead the root of a tree, from which they make flour, which is very good, and which they call Iuca, and another which they call Cāzabi, and another which they call Ignami. Very little meat is eaten by them except human flesh.... They devour with fierce avidity their enemies, whom they kill or capture, whether men or women. They thought it very strange when they learned that we did not eat the flesh of our enemies....

“We landed in a port[194] where we found a village built above the water like Venice. About forty-five bell-shaped houses were erected here upon very large piles, and connected one with the other by draw-bridges.... When we were descried by the people they were seemingly terrified, and to protect themselves they immediately drew their bridges and shut themselves up in their houses. While we were observing them and wondering at their actions, we beheld about twenty-two canoes (canoe) approaching us from the direction of the sea. These canoes are boats which they use, and are made from a single tree. The people in them rowed toward our boats, no little astonished at our forms and clothing. As they kept at some distance from us, we made signs to induce them to come nearer. Failing to assure them of our peaceful intentions, and seeing that they would not approach any nearer, we rowed toward them. But they did not remain where they were, but rowed to the land, where, by signs, they intimated that we should wait for a short time until they returned.

“They hastened away to a mountain, but did not stay there any length of time. Returning they brought with them sixteen young girls, and, entering their canoes, rowed to us, and placed four girls in each of our boats. We were much surprised at this.... They then kept their canoes alongside of our boats, and we were led to believe that these people were thus manifesting their friendship. Not suspecting any thing different, we observed a great number of people swimming toward us from the houses. Then some old women appeared at the doors of the houses shrieking and pulling their hair as if in great distress. Suspecting some treachery, we took up our arms. All at once the girls in our boats plunged into the sea, and the people in the canoes rowed away, shooting their arrows at us. Those who swam to us carried lances with them concealed under the water. Discovering their treachery, we not only defended ourselves, but vigorously attacked them. We upset in our boats many of their canoes and killed many people. In a short time those who were not hurt left their canoes and swam to the shore. They had about fifteen or twenty killed and wounded, and we five slightly wounded.... We took two girls and two men prisoners. When we entered their houses we found only two old women and a sick man. We took from the houses many things of little value, but did not burn the houses from humane motives....

“This country is thickly inhabited and contains a great many rivers. The animals in it are quite different from those in our country, except the lions, panthers, stags, hogs, goats, and deer, and some of these are somewhat different from ours in form.... But how can I describe the birds here, which are so many and of so many kinds, and the color of their feathers so different, that the sight of them amazes one.

“The country is very attractive and fruitful, and covered with very great woods and forests, in which the trees are always green, for they never lose their foliage. There are unnumbered fruits very different from those in our country. This land lies within the limits of the torrid zone, below the line describing the tropic of Cancer, where the pole is elevated twenty-three degrees above the horizon, at the end of the second climate.[195] ... In this country we made a baptismal font, and baptized many of the people, who called us caribi, meaning men of great wisdom.