[2] This fading influence coincided with the Portuguese's exploration of the Amazon river delta, though trade between the people of Brazil and the English and the Dutch was also increasing.

[3] These other accounts had some thematic similarities to de Léry's, such as the usage of tribe names to describe the people specifically, or the frequent use of gender-indicating nouns like “man” or “woman”.

He also joined Protestant troops in the French religious wars where he used knowledge he gained from his expeditions in Brazil to help him and other soldiers to survive.

[8] Léry describes the physical characteristics of the Tupinamba people and details the modifications they make to their bodies, as well as their comfortability with being completely nude.

Lery describes the constitution of the average Tupinamba person: Not taller, fatter, or smaller in stature than we Europeans are; their bodies are neither monstrous, nor prodigious with respect to ours.

In fact, they are stronger, more robust and well filled-out, more nimble, less subjected to disease; there are almost none among them who are lame; one eyed or disfigured[9]Léry goes on to describe that some individuals that he encountered lived well beyond one hundred years old (with respect that the Tupinamba people had a different Calendar than the Gregorian Calendar), and their elders are slow to develop grey or white hair.

We tried several times to give them dresses and shifts (as I have said we did for the men, who sometimes put them on) it has never been our power to make them wear clothes: to such a point were they resolved (and I think they have not changed their minds) not to allow anything at all on their bodies[11]Much of the chapter is dedicated to describing various body modifications Lery witnessed among men and women of the Tupinamba nation including, but not limited to, tattoos and piercings.

Lery describes a tradition of piercing the lower lip in young boys and inserting a bone an inch wide and that can be removed at any time.

He wrote about what the natives called a boure which was made with pieces of seashells that were polished on a sandstone which then were pierced and lined along a cotton string.

For the most part, Jean de Léry indicates that the Tupinambá people are peaceful, but rarely a fight breaks out between them that may end in a death.

From time to time, the Tupinambá people would move their houses to a different location and when Jean de Léry asked for the reason why he was told that,“The change of air keeps them healthier, and that if they did other than what their grandfathers did, they would die immediately” [18]Jean de Léry then goes in depth on how women spin cotton in order to make the beds that the Tupinambá people sleep on.

However, one of the Tupinamba people came and offered him the prisoner's foot, but since Jean de Léry's interpreter was not present, he thought they were threatening to eat him.

At the end of the visit, gifts are exchanged, which are usually small since the Tupinambá people travel by walking and do not have animals to carry cargo for them.

If someone dies, there is great mourning as Jean de Léry compares the cries of women to, “the howling of dogs and wolves.

Mourning lasts half a day, until the Tupinambá proceed with burying the body in the ground with jewelry the person used to wear.

[25] The rationale behind this custom is that the Tupinambá people believe that Aygnan, the evil spirit mentioned before, is hungry and finds no other meat around, he will dig up the dead body and eat it.

Still, Jean de Léry finds this custom disrespectful and tried to convince the Tupinambá people not to do it through interpreters with little success.

Lastly, the Tupinambá people place the plant called pindo used to build houses on graves as well so that they can recognize where their loved one was buried.

[26] It also details “how Brazil was created out of a fusion of Indian, European (and later African) elements”[26] and highlights larger historical themes.

De Léry describes the lives, culture, and rituals of the Tupinambá with “detailed thoroughness”[30] and is seen as exceptional in “his surprising openness to an alien culture.”[30] The great detail of de Léry's work and his willingness to intimately engage with the Tupinambá[27] is only critiqued by his “naive comparisons between the savagery of the Indians and the savagery of the Europeans.”[27] Whatley is noted as a “graceful”[30] translator and “a stylistic marvel.”[29] It is generally agreed that she was able to stay true to the charm of de Léry's prose and maintain the stylistic integrity of sixteenth-century French writing.