the stream-anchor.

The next morning, while our people were employed in getting wood and
water, and gathering celery and mussels, two canoes, full of Indians,
came alongside of the ship. They had much the same appearance as the
poor wretches whom we had seen before in Elizabeth's Bay. They had on
board some seal's flesh, blubber, and penguins, all which they eat raw.
Some of our people, who were fishing with a hook and line, gave one of
them a fish, somewhat bigger than a herring, alive, just as it came out
of the water. The Indian took it hastily, as a dog would take a bone,
and instantly killed it, by giving it a bite near the gills: He then
proceeded to eat it, beginning with the head, and going on to the tail,
without rejecting either the bones, fins, scales, or entrails. They eat
every thing that was given them, indifferently, whether salt or fresh,
dressed or raw, but would drink nothing but water. They shivered with
cold, yet had nothing to cover them but a seal-skin, thrown loosely over
their shoulders, which did not reach to their middle; and we observed,
that when they were rowing, they threw even this by, and sat stark
naked. They had with them some javelins, rudely pointed with bone, with
which they used to strike seals, fish, and penguins, and we observed
that one of them had a piece of iron, about the size of a common
chissel, which was fastened to a piece of wood, and seemed to be
intended rather for a tool than a weapon. They had all sore eyes, which
we imputed to their sitting over the smoke of their fires, and they
smelt more offensively than a fox, which perhaps was in part owing to
their diet, and in part to their nastiness. Their canoes were about
fifteen feet long, three broad, and nearly three deep: They were made of
the bark of trees, sewn together, either with the sinews of some beast,
or thongs cut out of a hide. Some kind of rush was laid into the seams,
and the outside was smeared with a resin or gum, which prevented the
water from soaking into the bark. Fifteen slender branches, bent into an
arch, were sewed transversely to the bottom and sides, and some straight
pieces were placed across the top, from gunwale to gunwale, and securely
lashed at each end: Upon the whole, however, it was poorly made, nor had
these people any thing among them in which there was the least
appearance of ingenuity. I gave them a hatchet or two, with some beads,
and a few other toys, with which they went away to th