A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17

ird-fowling.--Their Religion.--Mr Elliot, our Surgeon, dies.--Trans

y ill since we left them; a few sea- eggs were all the subsistence they had lived upon, and these procured by the cacique's wife in the manner I mentioned before. This woman was the very reverse of my hostess; and as she found her husband was of so much consequence to us, took upon her with much haughtiness, and treated us as dependants and slaves. He was not more engaging in his carriage towards us; he would give no part of what he had to spare to any but Captain Cheap, whom his interest led him to prefer to the rest, though our wants were often

l to our share. A night or two after, they sent out some of their young men, who procured us a quantity of a very delicate kind of birds, called shags and cormorants. Their manner of taking these birds resembles something a sport called bat-fowling. They find out their haunts among the rocks and cliffs in the night, when, taking with them torches made of the bark of the birch tree, which is common here, and grows to a very large size, (this bark has a ver

by repairing to the water upon the first alarm. This is the case with them hereabouts; but as they frequently raise their heads above water, either to breathe or look about them, I ha

ntinued, from time to time, their good offices to me. Though I was not suffered to enter their wigwams, they would find opportunities of throwing in my way such scraps as they could secrete from their husbands. The obligation I was under to them on this account is great, as the hazard they ran in conferring these favours was little less than death. The men, unrestrained by any laws or ties of conscience in the management of their own families, exercise a most despotic authority over their wives, whom they consider in the same view they do any other part of their property, and di

have withdrawn myself from; and so far I am instructed. As there are no fixed seasons for their religious exercises, the younger people wait till the elders find themselves devoutly disposed, who begin the ceremony by several deep and dismal groans, which rise gradually to a hideous kind of singing, from which they proceed to enthusiasm, and work themselves into a disposition that borders on madness; for, suddenly jumping up, they snatch fire-brands from the fire, put them in their mouths, and run about burning every body they come near; at other times it is a custom with them to wound one another with sharp mussel- shells till they are besmeared with blood. These orgies continue till these who preside in them foam at the mouth, grow faint, are exhausted with

time, and lay at the bottom of the canoe he was in. The weather coming on too bad for their canoes to keep the sea, we landed again, without making any great progress that day. Here Mr Elliot, our surgeon, died. At our first setting out, he promised the fairest for holding out, being a very strong active young man: He had gone through an

om they appeared to be doatingly fond of, watching for his father and mother's return, ran into the surf to meet them: The father handed a basket of sea-eggs to the child, which being too heavy for him to carry, he let it fall; upon which the father jumped out of the canoe, and catching the boy

p it for four or five leagues, and then took into a branch of it, that ran first to the eastward, and then to the northward: Here it became much narrower, and the stream excessively rapid, so that we made but little way, though we worked very hard. At night we landed upon its banks, and had a most uncomfortable lodging, it being a perfect swamp; and we had nothing to cover us, though it rained very hard. The Indians were little better off than we, as there was no wood here to make their wigwams; so that all they could do was to prop up the bark they carry in the bottom of t

easily to be expressed. I had been three days at the oar without any kind of nourishment but the wretched root I mentioned before. I had no shirt, as mine was rotted off by bits, and we were devoured by vermin. All my clothes consisted

he bottom, and two for each side; and as these people have no iron tools, the labour must be great in hacking a single plank out of a large tree with shells and flints, though with the help of fire. Along the edges of the plank, they make small holes, at about an inch from one to the other, and sew them together with the supplejack or woodbine; but as these holes are not filled up by the substance of the woodbine, their boats would be immediately full of water if they had not a method of

I waited for two Indians who belonged to the canoe I came in, and who remained to carry over the last of the things from the side we were on. I had a piece of wet heavy canvas which belonged to Captain Cheap, with a bit of stinkin

stocking, my feet and legs were frequently torn and wounded. Before I had got half a mile the two Indians had left me, and making the best of my way lest they should be all gone before I got to the other side, I fell off a tree that crossed the road into a very deep swamp, where I very narrowly escaped drowning, by the weight of the burthen I had on my head. It was a long while before

ing my feet and ancles cut to pieces; but, instead of compassion for my sufferings, I heard nothing but grumbling from every one for the irreparable loss they had sustained by me. I made no answer, but after resting myself a little, I got up and struck into the wood, and walked back at least five miles to the tree I had marked, and returned just time enough to deliver it before my companions embarked, with the

stooping to get into it, I presently received two or three hearty kicks in my face, and at the same time heard the sound of voices, seemingly in anger, which made me retire, and wait at the foot of a tree, where I remained till an old woman peeped out and made signs to me to draw near. I obeyed very readily, and went into the wigwam. In it were three men and two women; one young man seemed to have great respect shewn to him by the rest, though he was the most miserable object I ever saw. He was a perfect skeleton, and covered with sores from head to foot. I was happy to sit a mome

understood they were going to the northward. They all went out together, excepting the sick Indian, and took up the planks of the canoes, which lay near the wigwam, and carried them upon the beach, and presently put it together, and getting every thing into it, they put me to the oar. We rowed across the lake to the mouth of a very rapid river, where we put ashore fo

into a swamp under a dropping tree. In this dismal situation I fell asleep, and awaked three or four hours after in such agonies with the cramp, that I thought I must die upon the spot. I attempted several times to raise myself upon my legs, but could not. At last I made shift to get upon my knees, and looking towards the wood, I saw a great fire at some distance from me. I was a long time

ing, I did not attempt to eat one, lest I should lose a moment in gathering them, not knowing how soon the Indians might be going again. I had almost filled my hat when I saw them returning to the canoe. I made what haste I could to her, for I believe they would have made no conscience of leaving me behind. I sat down to my oar again, placing my hat close to me, every now and the

had very nearly cost me my life. I was resolved to eat no more limpets till we landed, which we did some time after upon an island. I then took notice that the Indians brought all their shells ashore, and laid them above high-water mark. Here, as I was going to eat a large bunch of berries I had gathere

l and myself, besides the Indian, his companion or servant, to row, the cacique himself never touching an oar, but sitting, with his wife all the time much at his ease. Mr Hamilton continued in the same canoe he had been in all along, and which still was to keep us company some way further, though many of the others ha

o get a few shell-fish; and just as we have made a little fire in order to dress them, he has commanded us into the boat again, and kept us rowing the whole night with

h another, in hopes of killing hundreds at once, for it was endless work to pick them off. What we suffered from this was ten times worse even than hunger. But we were clean in comparison to Captain Cheap, for I could compare his body to nothing but an ant-hill, with thousands of those insects crawling over it; for he was now past attempting to rid himself in the least from this torment, as he had quite lost himself, not recollecti

to us very different from what we had heard before. However, they made us comprehend that a ship had been upon the coast not far from where we then were, and that she had a red flag:

northward, our cacique proposed to him to come into our canoe, which he refused, as the insolence of this fellow was to him insupportable; he therefore rather chose