of the
surface, occasioned by every light air of wind, would prevent his
sight: in this manner they strike at the fish with so much
certainty, that they seldom miss their aim.

The women are chiefly employed in the canoes, with lines and
hooks; the lines appear to be manufactured from the bark of
various trees which we found here, of a tough stringy nature, and
which, after being beaten between two stones for some time,
becomes very much like, and of the same colour as a quantity of
oakum, made from old rope: this they spin and twist into two
strands: in fact, I never saw a line with more than two. Their
hooks are commonly made from the inside, or mother of pearl, of
different shells; the talons of birds, such as those of hawks,
they sometimes make this use of; but the former are considered as
best.

In this necessary employment of fishing, we frequently saw a
woman with two or three children in a miserable boat, the highest
part of which was not six inches above the surface of the water,
washing almost in the edge of a surf, which would frighten an old
seaman to come near, in a good and manageable vessel. The
youngest child, if very small, lies across the mother's lap, from
whence, although she is fully employed in fishing, it cannot
fall; for the boat being very shallow, she sits in the bottom,
with her knees up to her breast, and between her knees and body,
the child lies perfectly secure. The men also dive for
shell-fish, which they take off from the rocks under water; we
frequently saw them leap from a rock into the surf or broken
water, and remain a surprizing time under: when they rise to the
surface, whatever they have gathered they throw on shore, where a
person attends to receive it, and has a fire ready kindled for
cooking.

They have no other method of dressing their food, than that of
broiling. Boiling water they have no conception of, as appeared
very lately; for when one of our boats was hauling the seine, one
of the sailors had put a pot on the fire ready to dress some
fish, and when the water was boiling, some fish were put in; but
several natives, who were near, and who wished to have more fish
than had been given them, seeing the fish put into the pot, and
no person watching them, a native put his hand into the boiling
water to take the fish out, and was of course scalded, and
exceedingly astonished.

With respect to religion, we have not been able yet to
discover that they have any thing lik