argest of all these islands. It is where
the king of all that country holds his court. The chiefs of all those
settlements submit to him. There was found among these strangers one
of the chiefs with his wife, who is the daughter of a king. Although
they may be half-naked, they have manners and a certain air of dignity,
which makes one recognize well enough who they are. The husband has
all his body painted with certain lines, the arrangement of which
forms various figures. The other men of this tribe have also some
similar lines, some of them more than the others; but the women and
the children do not have them at all. There are nineteen men and ten
women, of different ages. The contour and the color of their faces
are very similar to those of the natives of the Philippines. The men
have no other dress than a kind of girdle which covers their loins
and thighs, and which is wound several times about their bodies. They
have upon their shoulders more than an ell and a half of coarse cloth,
of which they make a kind of hood, which they tie in front, and allow
to hang carelessly behind. The men and the women are dressed in the
same fashion, except that the women have their wearing apparel a
little longer, descending from the waist almost to the knees.

Their language is different from that of the Philippines, and
resembles that of the Marianas Islands. Their manner of pronouncing
words is something like that of the Arabs. The woman who appears to
be of highest station has many rings and necklaces of tortoise-shell,
that are called here carey; and others of a material that is unknown
to us. This material, which somewhat resembles ambergris, is not
transparent.

This is the manner in which they lived upon the sea during the seventy
days while they had been at the mercy of the waves. They threw into
the sea a sort of weir, made of several small branches of trees tied
together. This weir had a large opening to allow the fish to enter,
and ended in a point to prevent their going out. The fish that they
caught in this manner were all the nourishment they had, and they
did not drink any water except that which the rain furnished them;
they caught it in the shells of cocoanuts--which are the fruit of
the palms of this country, as I have already said; they are of the
shape and size of a man's skull.

There are no cows in those islands. The natives tried to run away when
they saw some cows browsing the grass, just as when they hear