nner the natives of any coast, however rude they may be,
contrive to perform difficult tasks. Such things may be very simple
and easy for us to execute, when we have all the appliances and means
of our full equipment at command; but, as circumstances may often
occur to deprive us of many of those means, and thus, virtually, to
reduce us to the condition of the natives, it becomes of consequence
to ascertain how necessity, the venerable mother of invention, has
taught people so situated to do the required work. For example, it is
generally easy for a ship of war to pick up her anchor with her own
boats; but it will sometimes happen that the launch and other large
boats may be stove, and then it may prove of consequence to know how a
heavy anchor can be weighed without a boat at all.

We happened, in his Majesty's ship Minden, to run upon the Coleroon
shoal, off the mouth of the great river of that name, about a hundred
miles south of Madras. After laying out a bower anchor, and hauling
the ship off, we set about preparing the boats to weigh it in the
usual way. But the master-attendant of Porto Novo, who had come off to
our assistance with a fleet of canoes and rafts, suggested to Sir
Samuel Hood that it might he a good opportunity to try the skill of
the natives, who were celebrated for their expertness in raising great
weights from the bottom. The proposal was one which delighted the
Admiral, who enjoyed everything that was new. He posted himself
accordingly in his barge near the spot, but he allowed the task to be
turned over entirely to the black fellows, whom he ordered to be
supplied with ropes, spars, and anything else they required from the
ship. The officers and sailors, in imitation of their chief, clustered
themselves in wondering groups in the rigging, in the chains, and in
the boats, to witness the strange spectacle of a huge bower anchor,
weighing nearly four tons, raised off the ground by a set of native
fishermen, possessed of no canoe larger than the smallest gig on
board.

The master-attendant stood interpreter, and passed backwards and
forwards between the ship and the scene of operations--not to direct,
but merely to signify what things the natives required for their
purpose. They first begged us to have a couple of spare topmasts and
topsail-yards, with a number of smaller spars, such as top-gallant
masts and studding-sail booms. Out of these they formed, with
wonderful speed, an exceedingly neat c