The Tapoyers, Who Inhabit The Inland
Country To The West, Are The Most Barbarous Of The Natives, Being Taller
And Stronger Than Any Of The Other Tribes, And Indeed Than Most
Europeans.
They wear, by way of ornament, little sticks thrust through
their cheeks and underlips, and are said to be cannibals, using poisoned
arrows and darts.
They live chiefly by hunting and fishing, shifting
their habitations according to the seasons. Their kings, or chiefs, are
distinguished by a particular manner of shaving their crowns, and by
wearing their nails very long. Their priests are sorcerers, making the
people believe that the devils appear to them in the form of certain
insects, and they perform their diabolical worship in the night, when
the women make dismal howlings, in which consists their principal
devotion. They allow polygamy, yet punish adultery with death. When the
young women are marriageable, but not courted, their mothers carry them
to the chiefs, who deflower them, and this is deemed a great honour.
Some of these people were considerably civilized by the Dutch, while
they possessed a part of Brazil, and did them good service under the
conduct of their native chiefs.
Leaving Isla Grande on the 30th November, we continued our voyage far to
the south, where we endured great cold, owing to which, a third part of
both ships companies fell sick while passing round Cape Horn, for which
reason we bore away for the island of Juan Fernandez, which we had some
difficulty to find, owing to its being laid down differently in all the
charts.
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