November. could bring aSainft kerned to be' well furniflied for a
s'^^TTT' fiege with eVery thing but water! we faw great quantities
of fern root, which they -eat as bread, and dried fiih piled up
in heaps; but we could not perceive that they had any frefh
water nearer than a brook, which runs clofe under the foot
of the hill: whether they have any means of getting it from
this place during a fiege, or whether they have any method
of ftoring it within the works in gourds or other veflels, we
could not learn;; fome refource they certainly have with
refpe& to this article, an indifpenfable necefiary of life, for
otherwife the laying up dry provifions could anfwernopur-
pofe. Upon our exprefling a defire to fee their method of
attack and defence, one of the young men mounted a fight-
ftage> which they call Poraya, and another went into the
ditch: both he that was to defend the place, and he that was
to affair It it, fung the war-fong, and danced with the fame
fiightful gefticulations that we had feen ufed in more ferious
circumftances, to work themfelves up into a degree of that
mechanical fury, which, among all uncivilized nations, is
die necefiary prelude to a battle for difpaflionate courage,
a ftrength of mind that can furmount the fenfe of danger,
without a flow of animal fpirits by which it is extinguifhed,
feems to be the prerogative of thofe who have projects of
more lafting importance, and a keener fenfe of honour and
difgrace, than can be formed or felt by men who have few
pains or pleafures befides thofe of mere animal life, and
fcarcely any purpofe but to provide for the day that is palling
over them, to obtain plunder, or revenge an infult: they
will march againft each other indeed in cool blood, though
they find it necefiary to work themfelves into paffion before
they engage; as among us there have been many inftances
of people who have deliberately made themfelves drunk,
that they might execute a projedt which they formed when
they
R O U N D T H E WORLD. 345
they were fober, but which, while they continued fo, they .
did not dare to undertake. >—p-----1
On the fide of the hill, near this inclofure, we faw about
half an acre planted with gourds and fweet potatoes, which was
the only cultivation in the bay : under the foot of the point
upon which this fortification Hands, are two rocks, one juft
broken off from the main, and the other not perfectly detached
from i t : they are both fmall, and feem more proper
for the habitations of birds than men; yet there are houfes
and places of defence upon each of them. And we faw
many other works of the fame kind upon fmall iflands,
rocks,' and ridges of hills, on different parts of the coaft, befides
many fortified towns, which appeared to be much fupe-
rior to this.
The perpetual hoftility in which thefe poor favages, who
have made every village a fort, muft neceffarily live, will
account for there being fo little of their land in a ftate of
cultivation; and, as mifchiefs very often reciprocally produce
each other, it may perhaps appear, that there being fo
little land in a ftate of cultivation, will account for their living
in perpetual hoftility. But it is very ftrange, that the fame
invention and diligence which have been ufed in the con-
ftruction of places fo admirably adapted to defence, almoft
without tools, Ihould not, when urged by the fame neceflity,
have furniflied them with a fingle miflile weapon except the
lance, which is thrown by hand : they have no contrivance
like a bow to difcharge a dart, nor any thing like a fling to
aflift them in throwing a ftone; which is the more furprif-
ing, as the invention of flings, and bows and arrows, is much
more obvious than of the works, which thefe people con-
firudt, and both thefe weapons are found among much ruder
nations, and in almoft every other part o f the world. Befides
5 the