demanded payment. I walked
back to our landing place, took one of the canoes and carried the box,
pot, &c. to my camp, where I opened the box and found some of the check
a little wet, but not from the upsetting of the canoe. I searched the
beach for some time, but could not find any traces of the rum-keg.
Having no companion left with me except my sick Indian, and no food to
eat, I was obliged to pick up old cocoa-nuts or any other articles I
could swallow to satisfy my craving appetite.

On the evening of the third day after my arrival here my Indians
returned much intoxicated, without the pilot. They picked up their
baggage and prepared for their departure; then laid themselves down
near the fire, and soon fell asleep. I piled up my goods as compactly
as I could, loaded my pistols and laid myself down on the top of them,
supposing they would attempt to rob me, and escape with their plunder. I
did not shut my eyes until about four o'clock and then fell asleep,
which continued about half-an-hour, when I awoke and found they were
taking their departure. I took a hasty look at my goods and found they
had only taken from me one empty jug and a few small articles of little
value.

A few hours after, the pilot, accompanied by Admiral Drummer, his two
wives, and thirty or forty Indians arrived, bringing me some provisions,
which I ate greedily. After making the admiral and his wives many
presents, I asked his price to carry me and my goods to Pearl Key
Lagoon. He told me I must pay him the same price I had paid the Indians
who had left me here--ten yards of check cloth to each man, and ten
additional yards for the hire of a large canoe belonging to himself. The
bargain being closed, the admiral and his party all left me, except
those I had employed to carry me to the Lagoon.

After the pilot had returned from the admiral's I asked him the cause of
their tarrying so long, knowing my destitute situation. He said they had
been to a drink-about of pine-liquor--a custom I did not then
understand. During my residence at the Lagoon I have been an invited
guest to drink-abouts. Pine-apples are raised in abundance in this
country, which the inhabitants of a number of settlements from time to
time collect in large quantities, and assemble at some central place,
where they convert them into a kind of pulp and then press out the
juice, put it into some old cask and let it remain a few days, when it
becomes the most palatable liquor I