thither to perfect my recovery, and I made signs
that I would go thither the next morning. When she intimated an
inclination to return, I ordered the gunner to go with her who, having
set her on shore, attended her to her habitation, which he described as
being very large and well built. He said, that in this house she had
many guards and domestics, and that she had another at a little
distance, which was enclosed in lattice-work.

The next morning I went on shore for the first time; and my princess, or
rather queen, for such by her authority she appeared to be, soon after
came to me, followed by many of her attendants. As she perceived that my
disorder had left me very weak, she ordered her people to take me in
their arms, and carry me not only over the river, but all the way to
her house; and observing that some of the people who were with me,
particularly the first lieutenant and purser, had also been sick, she
caused them also to be carried in the same manner, and a guard, which I
had ordered out upon the occasion, followed. In our way, a vast
multitude crowded about us, but upon her waving her hand, without
speaking a word, they withdrew, and left us a free passage. When we
approached near her house, a great number of both sexes came out to meet
her: These she presented to me, after having intimated by signs that
they were her relations, and taking hold of my hand, she made them kiss
it. We then entered the house, which covered a piece of ground 327 feet
long, and forty-two feet broad. It consisted of a roof, thatched with
palm leaves, and raised upon thirty-nine pillars on each side, and
fourteen in the middle. The ridge of the thatch, on the inside, was
thirty feet high, and the sides of the house, to the edge of the roof,
were twelve feet high; all below the roof being open. As soon as we
entered the house, she made us sit down, and then calling four young
girls, she assisted them to take off my shoes, draw down my stockings,
and pull off my coat, and then directed them to smooth down the skin,
and gently chafe it with their hands: The same operation was also
performed upon the first lieutenant and purser, but upon none of those
who appeared to be in health. While this was doing, our surgeon, who had
walked till he was very warm, took off his wig to cool and refresh
himself: A sudden exclamation of one of the Indians who saw it, drew the
attention of the rest, and in a moment every eye was fixed upon the
prodigy