We made a long navigation, and touched at several ports, where we
drove a considerable commerce. One day being out in the main
ocean, we were attacked by a horrible tempest, which made us lose
our course. The tempest continued several days, and brought us
before the port of an island, which the captain was very
unwilling to enter; but we were obliged to cast anchor there.
When we had furled our sails, the captain told us, that this and
some other neighbouring islands were inhabited by hairy savages,
who would speedily attack us; and though they were but dwarfs,
yet our misfortune was such, that we must make no resistance, for
they were more in number than the locusts; and if we happened to
kill one of them, they would all fall upon us and destroy us.
This discourse of the captain put the whole equipage into a great
consternation, and we found very soon, to our cost, that what he
had told us was too true; an innumerable multitude of frightful
savages, covered over with red hair, and about two feet high,
came swimming towards us, and encompassed our ship in a little
time. They spoke to us as they came near, but we understood not
their language; they climbed up the sides of the ship with so
much agility as surprised us. We beheld all this with fear,
without daring to offer at defending ourselves, or to speak one
word to divert them from their mischievous design.
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