1In the same summer a cohort of Usipi, levied in the Germanies and sent across into Britain, dared a great and memorable deed. 2Having killed a centurion and the soldiers who had been mixed among their companies to teach discipline and were regarded as models and instructors, they boarded three light galleys, forcing the helmsmen aboard by violence; 2and with only one of these steering, since the other two were suspected and therefore killed, they sailed along, before the news had spread, like a portent. 3Then, landing to get water and to seize what they needed, they came to blows with many of the Britons defending their property, and, often victorious, sometimes driven off, they came at last to such extremity of want that they ate the weakest among them, then those chosen by lot.
4And so, having sailed round Britain and lost their ships through ignorance of how to handle them, they were taken for pirates and intercepted first by the Suebi, then by the Frisii. 5And there were some who, sold by way of trade and passed from buyer to buyer as far as our bank, became famous for the story of so great an adventure.