We remained by the side of this island two whole days before we saw any people of the country. The third day we espied one small boat rowing towards us, having in it three persons. This boat came to the island side, four arquebuse-shot from our ships; and there, two of the people remaining, the third came along the shore-side toward us; and we,being then all within board,[193] he walked up and down upon the point of land next unto us.Then the master and pilot of the admiral,[194] Simon Ferdinando, and the captain, Philip Amadas, myself, and others, rowed to the land, whose coming this fellow attended, never making any show of fear or doubt. And, after he had spoken of many things not understood by us, we brought him, with his own good liking, aboard the ships, and gave him a shirt, a hat, and some other things, and made him taste of our wine and our meat, which he liked very well; and, after having viewed both barks, he departed, and went to his own boat again, which he had left in a little cove or creek adjoining. Soon as he was two bow-shot into the water, he fell to fishing; and in less than half an hour he had laden his boat as deep as it could swim, with which he came again to the point of the land; and there he divided his fish into two parts,pointing[195] one part to the ship, and the other to the pinnace; which after he had, as much as he might, requited the former benefits received, departed out of our sight.
The next day, there came unto us divers boats, and in one of them the king’s brother, accompanied with forty or fifty men, very handsome and goodly people, and in their behavior as mannerly and civil as any ofEurope. His name was Granganimeo, and the king is called Wingina; the country, Wingandacoa; and now, by her Majesty, Virginia. The manner of his coming was in this sort: he left his boats all together, as the first man did, a little from the ships by the shore, and came along to the place over against the ships, followed with forty men. When he came to the place, his servants spread a long mat upon the ground, on which he sat down; and at the other end of the mat four others of his company did the like: the rest of his men stood round about him somewhat afar off. When we came to the shore to him with our weapons, he never moved from his place, nor any of the other four, nor never mistrusted any harm to be offered from us; but, sitting still, he beckoned us to come and sit by him, which we performed; and, being set, he made all signs of joy and welcome, striking on his head and his breast, and afterwards on ours, to show we all were one, smiling and making show, the best he could, of all love and familiarity. After he had made a long speech unto us, we presented him with divers things, which he received very joyfully and thankfully. None of the company durst speak one word all the time: only the four which were at the other end spoke one in the other’s ear very softly.
A day or two after this, we fell to trading with them, exchanging some things that we had for chamois, buff, and deer skins.When we showed him[196] all our packet of merchandise, of all things that he saw, a bright tin dish most pleased him, which he presently took up, and clapped it before his breast, and, after,made a hole in the brim thereof, and hung it about his neck, making signs that it would defend him against his enemies’ arrows; for these people maintain a deadly and terrible war with the people and king adjoining. We exchanged our tin dish for twenty skins, worth twenty crowns, or twenty nobles; and a copper kettle for fifty skins, worth fifty crowns. They offered us good exchange for our hatchets and axes and for knives, and would have given any thing for swords;but we would not depart[197] with any.
After two or three days, the king’s brother came aboard the ships, and drank wine, and ate of our meat and our bread, and liked exceedingly thereof; and, after a few days overpassed, he brought his wife with him to the ships, his daughter, and two or three children. His wife was very well favored, of mean stature, and very bashful. She had on her back a long cloak of leather, with the fur side next to her body, and before her a piece of the same; about her forehead she had a band of white coral, and so had her husband many times; in her ears she had bracelets of pearl hanging down to her middle,—whereof we delivered your Worship a little bracelet,—and those were of the bigness of good peas. The rest of her women of the better sort had pendants of copper hanging in either ear; and some of the children of the king’s brother, and other noblemen, have five or six in either ear. He himself had upon his head a broad plate of gold, or copper; for, being unpolished, we knew not what metal it should be; neither would he by any means suffer us to take it off his head; but feeling it,it would bow[198] very easily.His apparel was as his wife’s; only the women wear their hair long on both sides, and the men but on one. They are of color yellowish, and their hair black, for the most part; and yet we saw children that had very fine auburn and chestnut colored hair.
After that these women had been there, there came down from all parts great store of people, bringing with them leather, coral, divers kind of dyes, very excellent, and exchanged with us. But when Granganimeo, the king’s brother, was present, none durst trade but himself, except such as wear red pieces of copper on their heads like himself; for that is the difference between the noblemen and the governors of countries, and the meaner sort. And we both noted there, and you have understood since by these men which we brought home, that no people in the world carry more respect to their king, nobility, and governors, than these do. The king’s brother’s wife, when she came to us,—as she did many times,—was followed with forty or fifty women always; and, when she came into the ship, she left them all on land, saving her two daughters, her nurse, and one or two more. The king’s brother always kept this order: as many boats as he would come withal to the ships, so many fires would he make on the shore afar off, to the end we might understand with what strength and company he approached.
Their boats are made of one tree, either of pine or of pitch trees, a wood not commonly known to our people, nor found growing in England. They have no edge-tools to make them withal: if they have any, they are very few, and those it seems they had twenty years since, which, as those two men declared, was outof a wreck, which happened upon their coast, of some Christian ship, being beaten that way by some storm and outrageous weather, whereof none of the people were saved, but only the ship, or some part of her, being cast upon the sand, out of whose sides they drew the nails and the spikes, and with those they made their best instruments.
The manner of making their boats is thus: they burn down some great tree, or take such as are windfallen, and, putting gum and resin upon one side thereof, they set fire into it, and, when it hath burned it hollow, they cut out the coal with their shells, and ever, where they would burn it deeper or wider, they lay on gums which burn away the timber; and by this means they fashion very fine boats,and such as will transport twenty men.[199] Their oars are like scoops;and many times they set[200] with long poles, as the depth serveth.
The king’s brother had great liking of our armor, a sword, and divers other things which we had,and offered to lay a great box of pearls in gage[201] for them; but we refused it for this time, because we would not make them know that we esteemed thereof, until we had understood in what places of the country the pearl grew; which now your Worship doth very well understand.
He was very just of his promise, for many times we delivered him merchandise upon his word; but ever he came within the day, and performed his promise. He sent us every day a brace or two of fat bucks, conies, hares, fish, the best in the world.