Page 141
An.1684
Payta. Colan. Bark-logs.
so richly furnished. The Churches were large and fairly carved: At one end of the Town there was a small Fort close by the Sea, but no great Guns in it. This Fort, only with Musquets, will command all the Bay, so as to hinder any Boats from landing. There is another Fort on the top of the Hill, just over the Town, which commands both it and the lower Fort. There is neither Wood nor Water to be had here: They fetch their Water from an Indi- an Town called Colan, about 2 leagues N. N. E. from Payta: for at Colan there is a small River of fresh Water, which runs out into the Sea; from whence Ships that touch at Payta are supplied with Water and other refreshments, as Fowls, Hogs, Plantains, Yams, and Maize: Payta being destitute of all these things, only as they fetch them from Colan, as they have occasion.
The Indians of Colan are all Fisher-men: They go out to Sea and fish on Bark-logs. Bark-logs are made of many round logs of Wood in manner of a Raft, and very different according to the use that they are design'd for, or the humour of the people that make them, or the matter that they are made of. If they are made for Fishing, then they are on- ly 3 or 4 logs of Light-wood, of 7 or 8 foot long, plac'd by the side of each other, pinn'd fast together with wooden pins, and bound hard with withes. The Logs are so plac'd, that the middlemost are longer than those by the sides, especially at the head or fore-part, which grows narrower gradually into an angle or point, the better to cut through the Water. Others are made to carry Goods: The bot- tom of these is made of 20 or 25 great Trees of a- bout 20, 30, or 40 foot long, fasten'd as the other, side to side, and so shaped: On the top of these they place another shorter row of Trees across them, pinn'd fast to each other, and then pinn'd to the un- dermost row: this double row of planks makes the bottom