miles, in which journey we had excessive heats to support, unpassable
deserts to go over, no carriages, camels, or beasts of any kind to carry
our baggage, innumerable numbers of wild and ravenous beasts to encounter
with, such as lions, leopards, tigers, lizards, and elephants; we had the
equinoctial line to pass under, and, consequently, were in the very centre
of the torrid zone; we had nations of savages to encounter with, barbarous
and brutish to the last degree; hunger and thirst to struggle with, and, in
one word, terrors enough to have daunted the stoutest hearts that ever were
placed in cases of flesh and blood.

Yet, fearless of all these, we resolved to adventure, and accordingly made
such preparations for our journey as the place we were in would allow us,
and such as our little experience of the country seemed to dictate to us.

It had been some time already that we had been used to tread barefooted
upon the rocks, the gravel, the grass, and the sand on the shore; but as we
found the worst thing for our feet was the walking or travelling on the dry
burning sands, within the country, so we provided ourselves with a sort of
shoes, made of the skins of wild beasts, with the hair inward, and being
dried in the sun, the outsides were thick and hard, and would last a great
while. In short, as I called them, so I think the term very proper still,
we made us gloves for our feet, and we found them very convenient and very
comfortable.

We conversed with some of the natives of the country, who were friendly
enough. What tongue they spoke I do not yet pretend to know. We talked as
far as we could make them understand us, not only about our provisions, but
also about our undertaking, and asked them what country lay that way,
pointing west with our hands. They told us but little to our purpose, only
we thought, by all their discourse, that there were people to be found, of