The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 31 _ to see us carried to our boat. We did not load as much water as we would have wished because the wind invited us to proceed on our journey. We called this country the Terra da Boa Gente [Land of Good People] and the river was named the Rio do Cobre [Bronze River]. While at sea one Monday, we caught sight of a low-lying land with very tall dense forests, and while we continued on our journey, we spotted the broad estuary of a river. Because we needed to know and find out where we were, we dropped anchor. When we entered on Thursday evening, with eight days of January left, we found the Berrio already there, having entered the day before. This country is very low and swampy and covered in large forests. These produce great quantities of fruit of all sorts, which the natives eat. The people are black and well-built. They walk about naked, apart from small loincloths with which they cover their private parts, and the chiefs of this country wear larger loincloths. The young women of this country, who seem very attractive, have their lips pierced in three places and they wear pieces of twisted tin in them. These people were very much at ease with us, and they brought whatever they had to our ships in almadias, while we went in the same way to their village to obtain water.

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