went on to a place called Gouanes, where they were
very hospitably entertained. It was a chill evening, and they found a
brilliant fire of hickory wood crackling upon the hearth.

"There had already been thrown upon it," they write,

"a pail full of Gouanes oysters, which are the best in the
country. They are large, some of them not less than a foot
long, and they grow, sometimes ten, twelve and sixteen
together, and are then like a piece of rock. We had for
supper a roasted haunch of venison which weighed thirty
pounds, and which he had bought of the Indians for fifteen
cents. The meat was exceedingly tender and good and quite
fat. We were served also with wild turkey, which was also
fat and of a good flavor, and a wild goose. Everything we
had was the natural production of the country. We saw lying
in a heap, a hill of watermelons as large as pumpkins. It
was late at night when we went to rest, in a Kermis bed, as
it is called, in the corner of the hearth, alongside of a
good fire."

"The next morning they threaded their way through the
forest, and along the shore to the extreme west end of the
island, where fort Hamilton now stands. They passed through
a large plantation, of the Najack Indians, which was waving
with corn. A noise of pounding drew them to a place where a
very aged Indian woman was beating beans out of the pods
with a stick, which she did with amazing dexterity. Near by
was the little cluster of houses of the dwindling tribe. The
village consisted of seven or eight huts, occupied by
between twenty and thirty Indians, men, women and children.

"These huts were about sixty feet long and fifteen wide. The
floor was of earth. The posts were large limbs of trees,
planted firmly in the ground. The sides were of reeds and
the bark of trees. An open space, about six inches wide, ran
along the whole length of the roof, for the passage of
smoke. On the sides the roof was so low that a man could not
stand under it.

"They build their fire in the middle of the floor, according
to the number of families which live in the hut; not only
the families themselves, but each Indian alone, according as
he is hungry, at all hours morning, noon and night. They lie
upon mats with their feet towards the fire. All in one
house, are gener