C A P T A «8* I N C A R T E R E T ’S V O Y A G E
•1767. our rhetoric was to no effort, for as foon as they came
‘September.^ a caft Qf the fhip, they poured in a fhower of darts
Tuefd^y 15. ggS| lances, which, however, did us no harm. We returned
the affault by firing forne mufkets, and one man being killed,
the reft precipitately leaped into the fea, and fwimming to
the others, who watted at a diftance, all returned together
from whence they came. As foon as the canoe was deferted,
we got out our boat and brought it on board: it was full
fifty feet long, though one of the fmalleft that came againft
u s ; it was very rudely made out of one tree, but had an
outrigger. We found in it fix fine fifh, and a turtle, fome
yams, one cocoa-nut, and a bag full o f a fmall kind o f
apple or plum, of a fweetifh tafte and farinaceous fub-
ftapce; it had a flattilh kernel, and was wholly different
from every thing we have feen either before or fince: it was
eatable raw, but much better boiled, or retailed in the embers
: we found alfo two large earthen pots, fhaped forne-
what like a jug, with a wide mouth, but without handles,
and a confide rable quantity of matting, which thefe people
ufe both for fails and awning, fpreading it over bent flicks,
much in the fame manner as the tilts of the London wherries,
From the contents of this veffel we judged that it had
been filhing, and we obferved that the people had a fire on
board, with one of- their pots on it, in which they were
boiling their provifion. When we had fatisfied our curiofity
by examining it, we cut it up. for fire-wood
Thefe Indians were the fame kind of people that we had feen
before on the coaft of New Ireland, and at Egmont Ifland“:
they were of a very dark copper colour, nearly black, with
woolly heads. They chew beetle-nut, and go quite naked,
except the rude ornaments of fhells ftrung together, which
they wear round their legs and arms: they were alfo powdered