ey
certainly considered our cloaths as so many different skins, and
the hat as a part of the head: they were pleased with such
trifles as we had to give them, and always appeared chearful and
in good humour: they danced and sung with us, and imitated our
words and motions, as we did theirs. They generally appeared
armed with a lance, and a short stick which assists in throwing
it: this stick is about three feet long, is flattened on one
side, has a hook of wood at one end, and a flat shell, let into a
split in the stick at the other end, and fastened with gum; upon
the flat side of this stick the lance is laid, in the upper end
of which is a small hole, into which the point of the hook of the
throwing stick is fixed; this retains the lance on the flat side
of the stick; then poising the lance, thus fixed, in one hand,
with the fore-finger and thumb over it, to prevent its falling
off side-ways, at the same time holding fast the throwing-stick,
they discharge it with considerable force, and in a very good
direction, to the distance of about sixty or seventy yards*.
Their lances are in general about ten feet long: the shell at one
end of the throwing-stick is intended for sharpening the point of
the lance, and for various other uses. I have seen these weapons
frequently thrown, and think that a man upon his guard may with
much ease, either parry, or avoid them, although it must be owned
they fly with astonishing velocity.

[* I have since seen a strong young man throw the
lance full ninety yards; which, till then, I did not believe
possible. I measured the distance.]

While employed on the survey of the harbour, we were one
morning early, in the upper part of it, and at a considerable
distance from the ship, going to land, in order to ascertain a
few angles, when we were a little surprized to find the natives
here in greater numbers than we had ever seen them before in any
other place: we naturally conjectured from their numbers, that
they might be those who inhabited the coves in the lower part of
the harbour, and who, upon our arrival, had been so much alarmed
at our appearance, as to have judged it necessary to retire
farther up; they appeared very hostile, a great many armed men
appeared upon the shore wherever we approached it, and, in a
threatening manner, seemed to insist upon our not presuming to
land.

During the whole time we were near them, they hailed each
other through the woods, until their numbers we