Ten of the pygmies now came aboard, to whom we gave nutmegs and cloves,
thinking to please them. They took what we gave them, although they
appeared surprised that we should offer them anything. The little
chief, not more than three feet high, who had so amusingly attempted to
drive Janstins into the sea, again made signs to us to go ashore. So
Hartog ordered the pinnace to be manned, and armed against treachery.
But we had not come within musket shot of the beach when the water
became so shallow that we could not take the boat any farther,
whereupon a number of us stepped out into the shallows, up to our
waists in mud and kelp, and with some difficulty made our way to the
beach, where the pygmies mustered in great force.
On the beach we noticed fresh human footprints that must have been made
by men of great stature. They were twice as long as the footprints we
made, and none of us were noted for small feet. On going a short
distance into the woods we saw a vast number of huts made of dried
grass, so cramped that a man of ordinary size could not creep into them
on all fours, yet many of them contained families of pygmies. We
afterwards tried to penetrate somewhat farther into the wood, in order
to ascertain the nature and situation of the country, when, on coming
to an open place, a number of tall savages, none of them less than
eight feet high; came out from the brushwood as though to attack us.
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