Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/15

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PREFACE.

successors. And, whilst their wigwams have long vanished from the earth's face, their enormous "kitchen middens", called by the natives Sambaqué, and by the Portuguese Ostreiras, containing thousands of cubic feet, and composed chiefly of Venus (berbigões), oyster and mussel shells, still stud the coast line and supply the granitic and primary regions with lime, which will presently be exhausted.

Before my transfer from Santos to Damascus (1869), I had strongly recommended a friend, Albert Tootal, to expend the moments which he could spare from more important matters in translating Hans Stade. He followed my advice, and all those who take an interest in wild tribes, and especially in the Brazilian savages, owe him a debt of gratitude. Also at my suggestion, he preserved the chaste and simple style which best suits the subject; which accords with the character of the unlettered gunner, and which seems to vouch for the truth and the straightforwardness of the traveller. And the matter is not less interesting than the manner: it has the intrinsic value of ranking amongst the very few works written by eye-witnesses during the early sixteenth century, and it throws important light upon a point which unreasonable doubts have lately darkened. Not long ago we were assured that man does not outlive a hundred years, and the supposed error of Flourens led his correctors into an error still greater. After that freak, that "crotchet of criticism", the existence of cannibalism, which seems at different ages of the world to have been the universal custom of mankind, was called in question. Hans

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