ull of gravy, and, in
my opinion, better in every respect than when it is dressed any other
way. Excepting the fruit, they have no sauce but salt water, nor any
knives but shells, with which they carve very dexterously, always
cutting from them. It is impossible to describe the astonishment they
expressed when they saw the gunner, who, while he kept the market, used
to dine on shore, dress his pork and poultry by boiling them in a pot.
Having, as I have before observed, no vessel that would bear the fire,
they had no idea of hot water or its effects: But from the time that the
old man was in possession of an iron pot, he and his friends eat boiled
meat every day. The iron pots which I afterwards gave to the queen and
several of the chiefs, were also in constant use, and brought as many
people together, as a monster or a puppet-show in a country fair. They
appeared to have no liquor for drinking but water, and to be happily
ignorant of the art of fermenting the juice of any vegetable, so as to
give it an intoxicating quality: They have, as has been already
observed, the sugar-cane, but they seemed to make no other use of it
than to chew, which they do not do habitually, but only break a piece
off when they happen to pass by a place where it is growing.

Of their domestic life and amusements, we had not sufficient opportunity
to obtain much knowledge; but they appear sometimes to have wars with
each other, not only from their weapons, but the scars with which many
of them were marked, and some of which appeared to be the remains of
very considerable wounds, made with stones, bludgeons, or some other
obtuse weapon: By these scars also they appear to be no inconsiderable
proficients in surgery, of which indeed we happened to have more direct
evidence. One of our seamen, when he was on shore, run a large splinter
into his foot, and the surgeon being on board, one of his comrades
endeavoured to take it out with a penknife; but after putting the poor
fellow to a good deal of pain, was obliged to give it over. Our good old
Indian, who happened to be present, then called over one of his
countrymen that was standing on the opposite side of the river, who,
having looked at the seaman's foot, went immediately down to the beach,
and, taking up a shell, broke it to a point with his teeth; with this
instrument, in little more than a minute, he laid open the place, and
extracted the splinter; in the mean time the old man, who, as soon a