The ships remained in this delightful country of Verzim thirteen weeks. Pigafetta and Del Cano must have thought that life here was ideal. What scenes would follow?
CHAPTER IX.
PINEAPPLES, POTATOES, VERY OLD PEOPLE.
Other things were there on the wonderful Brazilian coast. There the mariners traded in them and were refreshed with a delicious fruit, called pique—pineapples.
They came to the knowledge here of a nutritious ground fruit called battate. "This," says our Italian, "has the taste of a chestnut and is the length of a shuttle." These ground fruits were potatoes.
The people here seem to have been very liberal in trading.
They would give six fowls for a knife—well they might do so, as they used stone implements.
They gave two geese for a comb—here they were both generous and wise.