n
creature; and had miserably perished by thirst and hunger had we not met
with some fishermen's boats, who exchanged their fish for tobacco.

Through all these fatigues we at length came to Jubo, a kingdom of
considerable extent, situated almost under the line, and tributary to the
Portuguese, who carry on a trade here for ivory and other commodities.
This region so abounds with elephants, that though the teeth of the male
only are valuable, they load several ships with ivory every year. All
this coast is much infested with ravenous beasts, monkeys, and serpents,
of which last here are some seven feet in length, and thicker than an
ordinary man; in the head of this serpent is found a stone about the
bigness of an egg, resembling bezoar, and of great efficacy, as it is
said, against all kinds of poison. I stayed here some time to inform
myself whether I might, by pursuing this road, reach Abyssinia; and could
get no other intelligence but that two thousand Galles (the same people
who inhabited Melinda) had encamped about three leagues from Jubo; that
they had been induced to fix in that place by the plenty of provisions
they found there. These Galles lay everything where they come in ruin,
putting all to the sword without distinction of age or sex; which
barbarities, though their numbers are not great, have spread the terror
of them over all the country. They choose a king, whom they call Lubo:
every eighth year they carry their wives with them, and expose their
children without any tenderness in the woods, it being prohibited, on
pain of death, to take any care of those which are born in the camp. This
is their way of living when they are in arms, but afterwards when they
settle at home they breed up their children. They feed upon raw cow's
flesh; when they kill a cow, they keep the blood to rub their bodies
with, and wear the guts about their necks for ornaments, which they
afterwards give to their wives.

Several of these Galles came to see me, and as it seemed they had never
beheld a white man before, they gazed on me with amazement; so strong was
their curiosity that they even pulled off my shoes and stockings, that
they might be satisfied whether all my body was of the same colour with
my face. I could remark, that after they had observed me some time, they
discovered some aversion from a white; however, seeing me pull out my
handkerchief, they asked me for it with a great deal of eagerness; I cut
it into