106 Carr. Warr sea-swallowing whirlpool—we were most miraculously delivered. For this fog being converted into so monstruous a shower of rain that it should seem the very windows of heaven were set open that it might with the more speed work our deliverance, fell with such vehemence that it not only allayed the raging of the fearful seas grown and swollen up into an incredible bigness, but broke the heart of that ‘most bitter storm. Thus, while we were all so mated and amazed that, neither hearing what the master aid for the whietling and buszing of the winds, not knowing for fear what to amend, we were most mirac- ulously by the mighty hand of God, past man’s capacity and alto- gether unlooked for of ourselves, delivered. And before it pleased God to inflict upon us this punishment, he foretold us by his warning messenger, a most rare accident, which the mariners called Santelmo or Corposantie,? which appear before any tempestuous weather as a sign of a most dangerous storm. And although the opinions of all writers are variable concerning its true essence, I am persuaded there can be no certain truth delivered about it. The Greeks call it Poliduces, the Latins Castor and Pollux; Pliny writes that it ig as much seen on land among a great army of men as at sea among mariners; Virgil seems to confirm this in the second book of the Aeneid, saying that it appeared at the head of Julius Ascanius; and Titus Livius affirms that such a thing appeared on the head of Servius Tullius, the sixth King of the Romans. But however it is variably censured in sundry writers. this is certainly agreed upon: that it foretells some great thing to come, and if it ap- pears in two lights, the goodness comes, and if but one, then some eminent danger is at hand to ensue; for, if just one fire is seen, it presages a most cruel, dangerous, and tempestuous storm, hazard- ing both ship, goods, and lives of all those who happen to be in it. This is ut unly confirmed by all sorts of nations which are naviga- tors, like the Spaniards, French, Portuguese, Turks, Moors, indeed all kinds of sea-faring men, but we, to our great peril, were made ‘eyewitnesses, which in my opinion was and is more authentic for us than if we received the reports of thousands of others. It is a fearful tale to tell. and a discourse dreadful ta the hearer to have delivered as a truth, that in the night a substance of fire resembling the shape of a fiery dragon should fall into our sails and there re- ‘main some quarter of an hour, afterwards falling onto the deck and passing from place to place, ready to set everything on fire, since fire most commonly converts all things into the same substance as itself, which is fire, being the true confirmation of that axiom of Aristotle that omne tale efficit maius tale This, I say, might seem 2. Compo Santo and St. Enos Fire are names given to the balls of electric light seen on the mast and yardarms of «ship in stormy weather 3. Properly Quod efi ale ud et magia (What makes another such s more such tse), [Tae Canntnats oF Brazit) 107 dreadful to the hearer, but it was much more dreadful for us, who beheld it with our eyes. This was strange, but the event much more strange, for this flery dragon, having coutinued halfway wver to the astonishment of us all, vanished without any harm done either to our shipping or to any of our company, except the most strange se- quel, as you have already heard in the description of this last storm, and yet not so strange as true. MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE [he Cannibals of Brazil]t 1 find (as far as I have been informed) there is nothing in that nation that is either barbarous or savage, unless men call that barbarism which is not common to them. As indeed, we have no other aim of ‘truth and reason than the example and idea of the opinions and cus- toms ofthe country we lve in. There i ever perfect religion, perfect icy, perfect and complete use of all things. They are even savage, Bowe call those fruits wild which nature of herself and of her ori nary progress has produced, whereas indeed they are those which ourselves have altered by our artificial devices and diverted from their common order we should rather term savage. In those are the true and most profitable virtues, and natural properties most lively and vigorous, which in these we have bastardised, applying them to the pleasure of our corrupted taste. And if, notwithstanding, in divers fruits of those countries that were never tilled, we shall find that in respect of ours they are most excellent, sind as delicate unto our taste, there is no reason art should gain the point of honour over our great and puissant mother Nature. We have so much by our in- ventions surcharged the beauties and riches of her works that we have altogether overchoked her; yet wherever her purity shines, she rakes ovr vain and frivolons enterprises wonderfully ashamed. Et veniunt hederee sponte sua melius, Suigit et in solis formosior arbutus antris, Et volucres mulla dulcius arte canunt. Ihies spring better of their own accord, Unhaunted plots much fairer trees afford Birds by no art much sweeter notes record.! + From “OF the cannibals” [1580], in The Essays, trans John Foro (London: V. Sims for E Blount, 1603), pp. 101-2, 108, 106-7, 1. Propet108 ‘Mice bE Monratone. All our endeavour or wit cannot so much as reach to represen nest ofthe leet birder, is contre, beauty: pai nd sens see the web of a silly spides. “All hings," says Plato, “are produced either by nature, by fortune, or by art. The greatest and fairest by one or other of the first two, the least and imperfect by the last.” Those na~ tions seem therefore so barbarous to me because they have received very little fashion from human wit, and are yet near their original naturalness. The laws of nature do yet command them, which are but little bastardised by ours. And that with such purity as I am sometimes grieved the knowledge of it came no sooner to light at what time there were men who better than we could have judged of it. Lam sorry Lycurgus and Plato had it not, for it seems to me that, what in those nations we see by experience does not only exceed all the pictures with which Hicentious Poetry has proudly embellished the golden age and all her quaint inventions to feign a happy condi- tion of man, but also the conception and desire of philosophy. They cad ot imagine a genity® so pure and simple a we sei by ex ience, nor ever believe our society might be maintai Ile at and hur enmbinatans Ife niente Plato, that has no kind of traffic, no knowledge of letters, no intelli- gence of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of political supe- Hiority, no use of service, of riches or of poverty, no contracts, no successions, no partitions, no occupation but idle, no respect of kin- dred, but common, no apparel but natural, no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corn, or metal. The very words that import lying, false- hood, treason, dissimulations, covetousness, envy, detraction, and pardon were never heard of amongst them. How dissonant would he find his imaginary commonwealth from this perfection! Hos natura modos primum dedit. Nature at first uprise These manners did devise.> Furthermore they live in a country of so exceedin; € the n 0 exceeding pleasant and temperate situation that as my testimonies have told me, it is very tare to see a sick body amongst them, and they have further assured me they never saw any man there either shaking with the palsy, toothless, with eyes dropping, or crooked and stooping through age, [Discusses their cannibalism] 1 am not sorry we note the barbarous horror of such an action, but grieved that prying so narrowly into their faults we are so 2 Simplicity: 3. Ving, Googie. (Tue Canntmats oF Brazit] 109 blinded in ours. I think there is more barbarism in eating men than to feed upon them being dead, to mangle by tortures and tor- ments a body full of lively sense, to roast him in pieces, to make dogs and swine gnaw and tear him in mammocks* (as we have not only read, but seen very lately, yes and in our own memory, not amongst ancient enemies, but our neighbours and fellow-citizens; ‘and what is worse, under pretence of piety and religion) than to roast and eat him after he is dead. {Remembers speaking to three cannibals who had been brought to Rouen] Afterward some demanded their advice and would needs know what things of note and admirable Uhey had observed amongst us. ‘They answered three things, the last of which I have forgotten, and am very sorry for it, the other two I still remember. They said first they found it strange that so many tall men with long beards, strong and well-armed, as were about the King's person (it is likely they meant the Switzers of his guard) would submit themselves to obey a beardless child, and that we did not rather choose one amongst them to command the rest. Secondly (they have a manner of phrase whereby they call men but a moiety of men from others), they had perceived there were men amongst us full-gorged with all sorts of commodities, and others who, hunger-starved and bare with need land poverty, begged at their gates; and found it strange these molties ‘so needy could endure such an injustice and that they took not the others by the throat, or set fire to their houses. I talked a good while with one of them, but I had so bad an interpreter, and who did so ill apprehend my meaning, and who through his foolishness was so troubled to conceive my imaginations, that I could draw no great matter from him. Touching that point, wherein I demanded of him ‘what good he received by the superiority he had amongst his coun- trymen (for he was a captain and our mariners called him king), he told me it was to march foremost in any charge of war. Further I asked him how many men did follow him, he showed me a distance of place, to signify they were as many as might be contained in so much ground, which I guessed to be about 4 or 5,000 men. More- over, I demanded if, when the wars were ended, all his authority ex- pired; he answered that he had only this left him, which was that when he went on progress and visited the villages depending of him, the inhabitants prepared paths and highways athwart the hedges of their woods for him to pass through at ease. All that is not very ill, but what of that? They wear no kind of breeches or hose 4: Shreds. 5. They speak of men as halves of each other, that is in two groups