Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/157
and similar unusual food. The savages who at first brought us provisions enough, when they had obtained sufficient wares, withdrew from us for the most part to other places: we also dared not rely entirely upon them, so that it grieved us to remain there and perish.
We therefore agreed that the greater part should travel overland to the province called La Sumption, which was three hundred miles off. The others were to proceed thither with the remaining ship. The captain kept several of us by him, who wore to proceed with him by water. Those who went by land carried provisions with them for their march through the wilderness, and taking some savages they set forth. But many perished with hunger, and the others arrived at their destination, as we afterwards learned: as to the rest of us, our craft was too small to put to sea with.
Caput XII.
How we agreed to sail to Sanct Vincente, where the Portuguese possess the land, intending to freight another ship from them wherewith to end our voyage, and how we suffered shipwreck in a great storm, not knowing how far we were from Sanct Vincente.
Now the Portuguese have taken possession of an island close to the mainland called S. Vincente (in the savage tongue Urbioneme[1]). This same province lies about seventy miles (leagues) distant from the place where we were. Thither it was our intention to sail and to see whether we could freight from the Portuguese a ship in which to make the Rio de Plata, for a craft such as that still left us was too small for all of us to sail therein. To seek information about this, some of us sailed with the captain named
- ↑ In chapter 14 called Orbionems. This probably is the origin of the corrupt "Orpion", or "Morpion", which Thevet and d'Abbeville make the native name of St. Vincent Island.