We made many enquiries concerning these people of the Dutch, and the following particulars are related upon the credit of their report:

Within the boundaries of the Dutch settlements there are several nations of these people, who very much differ from each other in their customs and manner of life: all however are friendly and peaceable, except one clan that is settled to the eastward, which the Dutch call Bosch men, and these live entirely by plunder, or rather by theft; for they never attack neighbours openly, but steal the cattle privately in the night. They are armed however to defend themselves, if that happen to be detected, with lances or affagays, and arrows, which they know how to poison by various ways, some with the juice of herbs, and some with the venom of the serpent called Cobra di Capelo; in the hands of these people a stone also is a very formidable weapon, for they can throw it with such force and exactness as repeatedly to hit a dollar at the distance of a hundred paces. As a defence against these freebooters, the other Indians train up bulls, which they place round their towns in the night, and which, upon the approach of either man or beast, will assemble and oppose them, till they hear the voice of their masters encouraging them to fight, or calling them off, which they obey with the same docility as a dog.

Voyaging Accounts