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Besides this, Xavier was likewise informed, that not long before, a Portuguese merchant, called Antonio Payva, going to Macassar in the name of Ruys Vaz Pereyra, captain of Malacca, for a ship's lading of sandal, a precious wood growing in that island, the king of Supa, which is one of the kingdoms of Macassar, came in person to see him, and asked divers questions relating to the Christian faith: that this honest merchant, better acquainted with his traffic than his religion, yet answered very pertinently, and discoursed of the mysteries of faith after so reasonable a manner, that the king, then threescore years of age, was converted, with all his family and court: that another king of the same island, called the king of Sion, followed his example; and that these two princes, who were solemnly baptized by the hand of Payva, not being able to retain him with them, desired him to send them some priests, who might administer the sacraments, and baptize their subjects.

Gonsalvo and Vaz accordingly put to sea and sailed towards the suspected land, and soon discovered that the appearances which had attracted their notice actually proceeded from a considerable island entirely overgrown with wood, to which, on that account, they gave the name of Madeira . After bestowing considerable attention upon the soil and other circumstances of this island, which was utterly destitute of inhabitants, Gonzalvo and Vaz returned to Portugal with the welcome intelligence, and gave so favourable a report of the extent, fertility, and salubrity of Madeira, that Don Henry determined to colonize and cultivate it.

* In the documents from which I have drawn this veracious history, a note is appended to this point of Yeo's story, which seems to me to smack sufficiently of the old Elizabethan seaman, to be inserted at length. "All so far, and most after, agreeth with Lopez Vaz his tale, taken from his pocket by my Lord Cumberland's mariners at the river Plate, in the year 1586.

If a fourth child arrives in the family, "it usually limps," and if it dies, the justly irritated parent cuts its body up carefully into very small pieces, and scatters them, doing away with the soul altogether. The Kama country people of the lower Ogowe are more superstitious and full of observances than the upper river tribes. Particularly rich in Fetish are the Ncomi, a Fernan Vaz tribe.

No mention is made of it in Barros; he attributes the first discovery of the island to Juan Gonzalez and Tristram Vaz, who he said descried it from Porto Santo, resembling a cloud on the horizon. The abbe Provost, however, in his general history of voyages, vol. 6, seems inclined to give credit to the account of Alcaforado.

Just about six o'clock, we run up to the Fallaba, the Move's predecessor in working the Ogowe, now a hulk, used as a depot by Hatton and Cookson. She is anchored at the entrance of a creek that runs through to the Fernan Vaz; some say it is six hours' run, others that it is eight hours for a canoe; all agree that there are plenty of mosquitoes.

On January 9, 1874, M. de Compiegne passed from the Fernao Vaz through the Obango Canal into the Ogobe, which, bordered by Fetish rocks, flows through vast forests; his object was to study the manners and customs of the Kammas, a more important tribe than is generally supposed, far outnumbering the Urungus of the coast.

Zarco was appointed governor of the southern and western portion of the island, and Captain Vaz of the northern and eastern.