Our Ships Were Every Day Crowded With People Of Different Aspects And Languages[6], And The Natives Were Continually Going Up And Down The River From One Place To Another, Both Men And Women, In Their Almadias.

They have no sails, and propel their almadias entirely with oars, which they use on both sides, all the rowers standing up.

One man stands at the stern, who rows sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, to keep the almadia steady in her course. They have no pins or row- locks to steady their oars, but hold them fast with both hands; their oar being a pole, like a half lance, seven feet and a half long, with a round board like a trencher fastened to one end, and with these they row with great safety and swiftness, in the mouths of their rivers, which are very numerous; but they seldom go out to sea, or to any distance from their own coasts, lest they should be taken by their neighbours and sold for slaves.

[1] There is some difficulty respecting the date of this second voyage. In the former, Cada Mosto sailed from Portugal in March 1455. In the course of his proceedings, the month of November is mentioned, and some subsequent transactions are said to have happened in July, which, on this arrangement, must necessarily have been of the year 1456. If, therefore, the dates of the former voyage be accurate, the second ought to have been dated in 1457.

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