_ 25 _ In this bay there is an island three crossbow shots out to sea. On it there are many seals and some of them are as big as grown bears. They are very frightening and have enormous tusks. They attack the men and no lance, no matter what force is used, is capable of wounding them. There are other smaller ones and some that are quite tiny. The big ones let out roars like lions and the little ones [walruses] bleat like goats. One day we were there amusing ourselves and we counted around three thousand, between big and the small ones, and we fired at them from the water with our bombards. On this island there are some birds about the same size as ducks, but they cannot fly because they have neither feathers nor wings and they are called soliticairos [penguins]. These birds bray like asses and we killed them at will. One Wednesday, while we were in this bay of St. Bras taking on water, we erected a cross and a padrão [commemorative column] there. We made the cross, which was very tall, from a mizzen mast. The following Thursday, when we were about to leave that bay, we saw ten or a dozen negroes knock down both the cross and the pillar, even before we had departed from there.
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