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THE CAPTIVITY OF HANS STADE

towards me; I knew them, and found that they had all surrounded me, and levelling their bows with arrows, they shot in upon me. Then I cried, "Now God help my soul;" I had scarcely finished saying these words when they struck me to the ground^[1] and shot (arrows) and stabbed at me. So far they had not (thank God!) wounded me further than in one leg, and torn my clothes off my body; one the jerkin, the other the hat, the third the shirt and so forth. Then they began to quarrel about me, one said he was the first who came up to me, the other said that he had captured me. Meanwhile the others struck me with their bows. But at last two of them raised me from the ground where I lay naked, one took me by one arm, another by the other, and some went behind me, and others before. They ran in this manner quickly with me through the wood towards the sea, where they had their canoes. When they had taken me to the shore, I sighted their canoes which they had drawn. up from the sea on to the land under a hedge, at the distance of a stone's-throw or two, and also a great number more of them who had remained with the canoes. When they, ornamented with feathers acccording to their custom, saw me being led along they ran towards me, and pretended to bite into their arms, and threatened as though they would eat me. And a king paraded before me with a club wherewith they despatched the prisoners. He harangued and said how they had captured me their slave from the Perot^[2]

↑ Usually the sign of capture was to place the hand upon the shoulder, a rite retained by the modern bailiff. "Tu ne m'as pas mis la main sur l'epaule en guerre ainsi qu'a fait celuy qui m'a donné à toy pour me reprendre" is the speech which Yves d'Evreux (p. 45) puts into the mouth of a "red" man.
↑ Southey (i, 58) writes, "I have sometimes suspected that … the Brazilians meant to call their enemies dogs, perros". The word is Spanish, not Portuguese, yet Camoens uses Pero. Juan de Lery has Maïr et Pero for Français et Portugais, and it has elsewhere been seen that Maïr and its cognate forms mean a stranger generally. Possibly it was applied to the Portuguese as a corruption of Pedro, as we say "Sawney",

[1] Usually the sign of capture was to place the hand upon the shoulder, a rite retained by the modern bailiff. "Tu ne m'as pas mis la main sur l'epaule en guerre ainsi qu'a fait celuy qui m'a donné à toy pour me reprendre" is the speech which Yves d'Evreux (p. 45) puts into the mouth of a "red" man.

[p171-2] Southey (i, 58) writes, "I have sometimes suspected that … the Brazilians meant to call their enemies dogs, perros". The word is Spanish, not Portuguese, yet Camoens uses Pero. Juan de Lery has Maïr et Pero for Français et Portugais, and it has elsewhere been seen that Maïr and its cognate forms mean a stranger generally. Possibly it was applied to the Portuguese as a corruption of Pedro, as we say "Sawney",

[1]

[2]