These miserable wretches are strangely infatuated with illusions of the devil: it caused no small horrour in me, to see one of them wrythe his neck all on one side, foam at the mouth, stand bare-foot upon burning coals for near an hour, and then recovering his senses, leap out of the fire without hurt, or signe of any. This I was an eye-witness of.
The water of _Ushery_-lake seemed to my taste a little brackish; which I rather impute to some Mineral-waters which flow into it, then to any saltness it can take from the Sea, which we may reasonably suppose is a great way from it. Many pleasant Rivulets fall into it, and it is stored with great plenty of excellent fish. I judged it to be about ten leagues broad: for were not the other shore very high, it could not be discerned from _Ushery_. How far this Lake tends Westerly, or where it ends, I could neither learn or guess.
Here I made a days stay, to inform my self further in these Countries; and understood both from the _Usheries_, and some _Sara_-Indians that came to trade with them, that two-days journey and a half from hence to the Southwest, a powerful Nation of Bearded men were seated, which I suppose to be the Spaniards, because the Indians never have any; it being an universal custom amongst them, to prevent their growth, by plucking the young hair out by the roots. Westward lies a Government inhospitable to strangers; and to the North, over the _Suala_-mountains, lay the _Rickohockans_. I thought it not safe to venture my self amongst the Spaniards, lest taking me for a Spy, they would either make me away, or condemn me to a perpetual Slavery in their Mines. Therefore not thinking fit to proceed further, the eight and twentieth of _June_ I faced about, and looked homewards.
To avoid _Wisacky_-Marish, I shaped my course Northeast; and after three days travel over hilly ways, where I met with no path or road, I fell into a barren Sandy desert, where I suffered miserably for want of water; the heat of the Summer having drunk all the Springs dry, and left no signe of any, but the Gravelly chanels in which they run: so that if now and then I had not found a standing Pool, which provident Nature set round with shady Oaks, to defend it from the ardour of the Sun, my Indian companion, horse and self had certainly perished with thirst. In this distress we travelled till the twelfth of _July_, and then found the head of a River, which afterwards proved _Eruco_; in which we received not onely the comfort of a necessary and seasonable refreshment, but likewise the hopes of coming into a Country again where we might finde Game for food at least, if not discover some new Nation or People. Nor did our hopes fail us: for after we had crossed the River twice, we were led by it upon the fourteenth of _July_ to the Town of _Katearas_, a place of great Indian Trade and Commerce, and chief Seat of the haughty Emperour of the _Toskiroro’s_, called _Kaskusara_, vulgarly _Kaskous_. His grim Majestie, upon my first appearance, demanded my Gun and Shot; which I willingly parted with, to ransom my self out of his clutches: for he was the most proud imperious Barbarian that I met with in all my Marches. The people here at this time seemed prepared for some extraordinary Solemnity: for the men and the women of better sort had decked themselves very fine with pieces of bright Copper in their hair and ears, and about their arms and neck, which upon Festival occasions they use as an extraordinary bravery: by which it should seem this Country is not without rich Mines of Copper. But I durst not stay to inform my self further in it, being jealous of some sudden mischief towards me from _Kaskous_, his nature being bloudy, and provoked upon any slight occasion.