The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 30 _ he was going to show the sort of things that were given to their great chief, who we thought was probably the king of that country. When they arrived in the port where the ships were a good two hundred men had already come to see them. We had the impression that this country was densely populated and with many chiefs. It seemed to us that the women outnumbered the men, because whenever twenty men appeared, forty women came too. The dwellings in this country are made of straw and the weapons of the people are long bows and arrows and iron-tipped spears. According to our observation, there is a lot of copper in this country too. They wear this on their legs and arms and in their curly hair. In addition, there is tin in this country, with which they decorate the hilts of their daggers, whose sheaths are made of ivory. The inhabitants of this country rate linen cloth very highly and they exchanged a large amount of copper for the shirts that we were prepared to give them. These people use large gourds to take salt water from the sea to the interior. They pour it into shallow pits in the ground and produce salt from it. We spent five days here anchored close inland among the breakers, taking on water, which those who had come

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