66
flat piece of wood that is pretty foft and make a fmall dent in one fide of it, then theytake another hard round flick, about the bignefs of one’s little finger, and fharpeningit at one end like a pencil, they put that {harp end in the hole or dent of the flat foftpiece, and then rubbing or twirling the hard piece between the palms of their hands,they drill tfle foft piece till it fmokes, and at laft takes fire.
Thefe people fpeak fomewhat through the throat, but we could not underftand oneword that they faid. We anchored, as I faid before, January the 5th, and feeing menwalking on the fliore, we prefently fent a canoe to get fome acquaintance with them :for we were in hopes to get fome provifion among them ; but the inhabitants feeingour boat coming, ran away and hid themfelves. We fearched afterwards three days inhopes to find their houfes, but found none ; yet we faw many place's where they hadmade fire. At laft, being out of hopes to find their habitations, we fearched no far-ther, but left a great many toys aflhore in fuch places where we thought that they wouldcome. In all our fearch we found no water, but old wells on the Tandy bays.
At laft we went over to the iflands, and there we found a great many of the natives :I do believe there vrere forty on one ifland, men, women, and children. The men atour firft coming afhore threatened us with their lances and fwords; but they werefrighted by firing one gun, which we fired purpofely to fcare them. The ifland wasfo fmall that they could not hide themfelves ; but they were much difordered at ourlanding, efpecially the women and children, for we went diredtly to their camp. Theluftieft of the women fnatching up their infants ran away howling, and the little childrenrun after fqueaking and banding, but the men flood ftill. Some of the women, andfuch people as could not go from us, lay ftill by a fire, making a doleful noife, as ifwe had been coming to devour them ; but when they faw we did not intend to harmthem, they were pretty quiet, and the reft that fled from us at our firft coming returnedagain. This their place of dwelling was only a fire with a few boughs before it, fet upon that fide the wind was of.
After we had been here a little while, the men began to be familiar, and we clothedfome of them, defigning to have had fome fervice of them for it, for we found fomewells of water here, and intended to carry two or three barrels of it aboard ; but itbeing fomewhat troublefome to carry to the canoes, we thought to have made thefemen to have carried it for us, and therefore we gave them fome old cloaths : to one anold pair of breeches, to another a ragged fln’rt, to the third a jacket that was fcarceworth owning ; which yet would have been very acceptable at fome places where wehad been, and fo we thought they might have been with thefe people. We put them onthem, thinking that this finery would have brought them to work heartily for us ; andour water being filled in fmall long barrels, about fix gallons in each, which were madepurpofely to carry water in, we brought thefe our new fervants to the wells, and puta barrel on each of their fhoulders for them to carry to the canoe. But all the figns wecould make were to no purpofe, for they flood like ftatues, without motion, but grinnedlike fo many monkies, flaring one upon another : for thefe poor creatures feem notaccuftomed to carry burthens, and I believe that one of our fhip-boys of ten years oldwould carry as much as one of them. So we were forced to carry our water ourfelves,and they very fairly put the cloaths off again, and laid them down, as if cloaths wereonly to w T ork in. I did not perceive that they had any great liking to them at firft,neither did they feem to admire any thing that we had.
At another time our canoe being among thefe iflands fee king for game, efpied adrove of thefe men fwimming from one ifland to another; for they have no boats,canoes, or bark-logs. They took up four of them, and brought them on board; two
• of