A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 760 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 760 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12.

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 the southward, and we saw no more of them.

While we lay here, we sent out the boats, as usual, in search of anchoring-places, and having been ten leagues to the westward, they found but two:  One was to the westward of Cape Upright, in the Bay of Islands, but was very difficult to enter and get out of; the other was called Dolphin Bay, at ten leagues distance, which was a good harbour, with even ground in all parts.  They saw several small coves, which were all dangerous, as in them it would be necessary to let go the anchor within half-a-cable’s length

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.