ner they killed with astonishing despatch some
enormous cod-perch; but the largest were struck by the chief from his
canoe with a long barbed spear. After a short time the young men in the
water were relieved by an equal number; and those which came out,
shivering, the weather being very cold, warmed themselves in the centre
of a circular fire, kept up by the gins on the bank. The death of the
fish in their practised hands was almost instantaneous, and seemed caused
by merely holding them by the tail with the gills immersed. The old men
at our camp sat watching us until sunset, when they went off quietly
towards the river; the afternoon also passed without a second visit from
the fishing tribe.

THE BURNING BRAND.

July 11.

Soon after sunrise this morning some natives, I think twelve or thirteen
in number, were seen approaching our tents at a kind of run, carrying
spears and green boughs. As soon as they arrived within a short distance
three came forward, stuck their spears in the ground and seemed to beckon
me to approach; but as I was advancing towards them, they violently shook
their boughs at me and, having set them on fire, dashed them to the
ground, calling out "Nangry" (sit down). I accordingly obeyed the
mandate; but seeing that they stood and continued their unfriendly
gestures, I arose and called to my party, on which the natives
immediately turned, and ran away.*

(*Footnote. Harmer says: "It was usual with the Greeks (Alex. ab Alex.
Genial Dier 1 v c3) when armies were about to engage, that before the
first ensigns stood a prophet or priest, bearing branches of laurels and
garlands, who was called Pyrophorus, or the torch-bearer, because he held
a lamp or torch; and it was accounted a most criminal thing to do him any
hurt, because he performed the office of an ambassador. This sort of men
were priests of Mars, and sacred to him, so that those who were
conquerors always spared them. Hence, when a total destruction of an
army, place, or people, was hyperbolically expressed, it used to be said:
'not so much as a torch-bearer, or fire-carrier escaped.'" Herod. Urania
sive 1 8 c6.)

I took forward some men, huzzaing after them for a short distance, and we
fired one shot over their heads as they ran stumbling to the other side
of an intervening clear flat, towards the tribe who were assembling as
lookers-on. There they made a fire, and seeming disposed to stop, I
ordered four men with muskets to advance an