The third serveth for all manner of birds: it hath a
head of an ounce weight. And these heads though they be of iron only,
yet are they so cunningly tempered, that they will continue a very good
edge a long time: and though they be turned sometimes, yet they
will never or seldom break. The necessity in which they stand hereof
continually causeth them to have iron in far greater account than gold:
and no man among them is of greater estimation, than he that can most
perfectly give this temper unto it.
Every day we were marching by sun-rising. We continued till ten in
the forenoon: then resting (ever near some river) till past twelve, we
marched till four, and then by some river's side, we reposed ourselves
in such houses, as either we found prepared heretofore by them, when
they travelled through these woods, or they daily built very readily for
us in this manner.
As soon as we came to the place where we intended to lodge, the
Cimaroons, presently laying down their burdens, fell to cutting of forks
or posts, and poles or rafters, and palmito boughs, or plantain leaves;
and with great speed set up the number of six houses. For every of
which, they first fastened deep into the ground, three or four great
posts with forks: upon them, they laid one transom, which was commonly
about twenty feet, and made the sides, in the manner of the roofs of our
country houses, thatching it close with those aforesaid leaves, which
keep out water a long time: observing always that in the lower
ground, where greater heat was, they left some three or four feet open
unthatched below, and made the houses, or rather roofs, so many feet the
higher.
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