I had a great high shapeless cap, made of goat’s skin, with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck; nothing being so hurtful in these climates, as the rain upon the flesh under the clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat’s skin, the skirts coming down to about the middle of my thighs; and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a length on either side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs. Stockings and shoes I had none; but I had made me a pair of something, I scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatter-dashes, but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat’s skin dried, which I drew together with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of a frog on either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw and a hatchet—one on one side, one on the other; I had another belt not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of goat’s skin, too, in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot: at my back I carried my basket, on my shoulder my gun, and over my head a great clumsy ugly goat’s skin umbrella, but which, after all, was the most necessary thing I had about me, next to my gun. As for my face, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-like as one might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissors and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by Turks whom I saw at Sallee; for the Moors did not wear such, though the Turks did; of these mustachios, or whiskers, I will not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them; but they were of length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in England would have passed for frightful.
But all this is by the bye; for as to my figure, I had so few to observe, that it was of no manner of consequence—so I say no more to that part. In this kind of figure I went my new journey, and was out five or six days. I travelled first along the sea-shore directly to the place where I first brought my boat to an anchor, to get upon the rocks; and, having no boat now to take care of, I went over the land a nearer way, to the same height that I was upon before; when, looking forward to the point of the rock which lay out, and which I was to double with my boat, as I said above, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there than in other places.
I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some time in the observing of it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was presently convinced how it was; namely, that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters from some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current, and that according as the winds blew more forcible from the west, or from the north, this current came near, or went farther from the shore; for, waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, and then, the tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half a league from the shore; whereas in my case, it set close upon the shore, and hurried me in my canoe along with it, which at another time it would not have done.