colours.  He had gold-rings in his ears, and three rings of that metal on each of his fingers.  His head was wrapped round by a silken veil or turban, and his body was cloathed to the knees in a cotton wrapper, wrought with silk and gold.  He wore at his side a sword or dagger, with a haft of gold, and a scabbard of carved wood.  This country is so rich, that one of the natives offered a crown of massy gold in exchange for six strings of glass beads; but Magellan would not allow such bargains, lest the Spaniards might appear too greedy of gold.

[Footnote 10:  These stories of gold in such wonderful abundance, are obvious falsehoods contrived by Pigafetta, either to excite wonderment, or to procure the command of an expedition of discovery; a practice we have formerly had occasion to notice in the early Spanish conquests and settlements in America.—­E.]

The natives were active and sprightly, the common men being quite naked, except painting their bodies; but the women are cloathed from the waist downwards, and both sexes wore gold ear-rings.  They all continually chewed areka, a fruit like a pear, which they cut in quarters, rolling it up in a leaf called betel, resembling a bay-leaf, alleging that they could not live without this practice.  The only religious rite observed among them, was looking up to heaven, to which they raised their joined hands, and calling on their god Abba.  Magellan caused a banner of the cross, with the crown of thorns and the nails, to be exposed and publicly reverenced by all his men in the king’s presence; desiring the king to have it erected on the top of a high mountain in the island, as a token that Christians might expect good entertainment in that country, and also as a security for the nation; since, if they prayed to it devoutly, it would infallibly protect them against lightning and tempests, and other evils.  This the king promised should be done, knowing no better, and glad to be so easily defended from thunderbolts.

Leaving this island, and conducted by the king’s pilots, the Spaniards came to the isles of Zeilon, Zubut, Messana, and Caleghan, of which Zubut was the best, and enjoyed the best trade.  In Massana, they found dogs, cats, hogs, poultry, goats, rice, ginger, cocoa-nuts, millet, panic, barley, figs, oranges, wax, and plenty of gold.  This island lies in lat. 9 deg. 40’ N. and in long. 162 deg. from their first meridian.[11] After remaining here eight days, they sailed to the N.W. passing the islands of Zeilon, Bohol, Canghu, Barbai, and Caleghan; in which last islands there are bats as large as eagles, which they found to eat, when dressed, like poultry.  In this island, among various other birds, there was one kind resembling our hens, but having small horns, which bury their eggs in the sand, where they are hatched by the heat of the sun. Caleghan is about twenty miles W. from Messana; and Zubut, to which they now directed their course, fifty leagues W. from Caleghan.  In this part of the voyage they were accompanied by the king of Messana, whom Magellan had greatly attached to him by many services.