oy and alacrity of children going to a fair, and, having no
intention of mischief against us, had not the least suspicion that we
intended any mischief against them. They sung several of their country
songs while they were in the boat, and when they came on board did not
express either the curiosity or wonder which the multiplicity of
objects, to them equally strange and stupendous, that at once presented
themselves, might be supposed to excite. I took them down into the
cabin, where they looked about them with an unaccountable indifference,
till one of them happened to cast his eyes upon a looking-glass: This,
however, excited no more astonishment than the prodigies which offer
themselves to our imagination in a dream, when we converse with the
dead, fly in the air, and walk upon the sea, without reflecting that the
laws of nature are violated; but it afforded them infinite diversion:
They advanced, retreated, and played a thousand tricks before it,
laughing violently, and talking with great emphasis to each other. I
gave them some beef, pork, biscuit, and other articles of the ship's
provisions: They eat indiscriminately whatever was offered to them, but
they would drink nothing but water. From the cabin I carried them all
over the ship, but they looked at nothing with much attention, except
the animals which we had on board as live stock: They examined the hogs
and sheep with some curiosity, and were exceedingly delighted with the
Guinea hens and turkies; they did not seem to desire any thing that they
saw except our apparel, and only one of them, an old man, asked for
that: We gratified him with a pair of shoes and buckles, and to each of
the others I gave a canvass bag, in which I put some needles ready
threaded, a few slips of cloth, a knife, a pair of scissars, some twine,
a few beads, a comb, and a looking-glass, with some new sixpences and
half-pence, through which a hole had been drilled, that was fitted with
a ribband to hang round the neck. We offered them some leaves of
tobacco, rolled up into what are called segars, and they smoked a
little, but did not seem fond of it. I showed them the great guns, but
they did not appear to have any notion of their use. After I had carried
them through the ship, I ordered the marines to be drawn up, and go
through part of their exercise. When the first volley was fired, they
were struck with astonishment and terror; the old man, in particular,
threw himself down upon the d