The
Companies Or Bands Were Of Various Numbers, Some 500, Some 300, And Some
Only Of 150 Men.
In the middle of every band there were three horses
very richly caparisoned, their saddles being covered by costly furs, or
velvet, or stammel broad-cloths.
Every horse was attended by three
slaves, who led them in silken halters, and their eyes were hoodwinked
by means of leathern covers.
After each troop or band, the captain followed on horseback, his bed and
all his necessaries being laid upon his own horse equally poised on both
sides, and over all was spread a covering of red felt of China, on the
top of which sat the captain crosslegged, like a huckster between two
paniers. Such as were old or weak in the back had a staff artificially
fixed on the pannel, on which he could lean back and rest himself as if
sitting in a choir. We met the captain-general of this new garrison two
days after meeting his first band, having in the mean time met several
of these bands in the course of our journey, some a league, and others
two leagues from each other. The general travelled in great state, much
beyond the other bands, yet the second band had their arms much more
richly decorated than the first, and the third than the second, and so
every successive band more sumptuous than another. The captain-general
hunted and hawked all the way, having his own hounds and hawks along
with him, the hawks being hooded and lured as ours in England.
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