"The natives of this island are tall, well-limbed men; pretty long visaged, with black eyes; their noses middle-proportioned, and the whole symmetry of their faces agreeing very well. Their hair is black and lank, and their skins of a dark copper colour. The women have no hair on their eyebrows. I do believe it is plucked up by the roots, for the men had hair growing on their eyebrows as other people.
"The men go all naked; only a long, narrow piece of cloth or sash, which, going round their waists, and thence down between their thighs, is brought up behind and tucked-in at that part which goes about the waist. The women have a kind of a short petticoat, reaching from their waists to their knees.
"Their language was different from any that I ever heard before; yet they had some few Malayan words, and some of them had a word or two of Portuguese, which, probably, they might learn aboard of their ships passing by this place; for when these men see a sail, they do presently go aboard of them in their canoes. I did not perceive any form of religion that they had; they had neither temple or idol, nor any manner of outward veneration to any deity, that I did see.
"They inhabit all round the island by the seaside, in the bays, there being four or five houses, more or less in each bay. Their houses are built on posts, as the Mindanayans. They are small, low, and of a square form. There is but one room in each house, and this room is about 8 feet from the ground; and from thence the roof is raised about 8 feet higher. But instead of a sharp ridge, the top is exceeding neatly arched with small rafters about the bigness of a man's arm, bent round like a half-moon, and very curiously thatched with palmetto leaves.[192]
"They live under no government that I could perceive, for they seem to be equal, without any distinction; every man ruling in his own house. Their plantations are only those coconut trees which grow by the seaside, there being no cleared land farther in on the island; for I observed that when past the fruit-trees, there were no paths to be seen going into the woods. The greatest use which they make of their coco-trees is to draw toddy from them, of which they are very fond.