from himfelf; for they appeared rather to be a travelling
—------> hord, than to have any fixed habitation. Their houfes are
built to ftand but for a fhort time ; they have no utenfil or
furniture but the bafket and fatchel, which have been mentioned
before, and which have handles adapted to the carrying
them about, in the hand and upon the back; the only
cloathing they had here was fcarcely fufficient to prevent their
perifhing with cold in the fummer of this country, much
lefs in the extreme feverity of winter; the Ihell-fifh which
feems to be their only food muft foon be exhaulted at anyone
place ; and we had feen houfes upon what appeared to
be a deferted ftation in St. Vincent’s bay.
It is alfo probable that the place where we found them
was only a temporary refidence, from their having here nothing
like a boat or canoe, of which it can fcarcely be fup-
pofed that they were wholly deftitute, efpecially as they were
not fea-fick, or particularly affetftred, either in our boat or on
board the Ihip. We conjectured that there might be a ftreight
or inlet, running from the fea through great part of this
ifland, from the Streiglit of Magellan, whence thefe people
might come, leaving their canoes where fueh inlet terminated.
They did not appear to have among them any government
or fubordination: none was more refpefbed than another;
yet they feemed to live together in theutmoft harmony
and good fellowfhip. Neither did we difcover any appearance
of religion among them, except the noifes which have
been mentioned, and which we fuppofed to be a fuperftitious
ceremony, merely becaufe we could'refer them-to nothing
elfe: they-were ufed only by one of thofe who came on board
the Ihip, and the two who conducted Mr. Biinks and Dr.
Solander to the town, whom we therefore conjeftured to be
priefts.
priefts. Upon the whole, thefe people appeared to be the
moft deftitute and forlorn, as well as the mod ftupid of all <■----*
human bangs ; the outcafts of Nature, who fpent their lives
in wandering about the dreary, waftes, where two of our
people perilhed with cold in the midft of fummer; with no
dwelling but a wretched hovel of flicks and grafs, which
would not only admit the wind, but the fnow and the rain;
almoft naked; and deftitute of every convenience that is fur-
nifhed by the rudeft art, having no implement even to
drefs their food: yet they were content. They feemed to
have no wifh for any thing more than they poffeffed, nor did
any thing that we offered them appear acceptable but beads,
as an ornamental fuperfluity of life. What bodily pain they
might fuffer from the feverities of their winter we could not
know; but it is certain, that they fuffered nothing from the
want of the innumerable articles which we confider, not as
the luxuries and conveniencies only, but the neceffaries of
life: as their, defires are few, they probably enjoy them a ll;
and how much they may be gainers by an exemption from
the care, labour and folicitude, which arife from a perpetual
and unfuccefsful effort to gratify that infinite variety of defires
which the refinements of artificial life have produced
among us, is not very eafy to determine: poffibly this may
counterbalance all the real difadvantages of their fituation in
companion with ours, and make the fcales by which good
and evil are diftributed to mam hang even between us.
In this place we faw no quadruped except feals, fea-lions,
and dogs ; of the dogs it is remarkable that they bark, which
thofe that are originally bred in America do not. And this
is a further proof, that the people we faw here had, either
immediately or remotely, communicated with the inhabitants
of Europe. There are, however, other quadrupeds in
this part of the country ; for when Mr, Banks was at the top
•VOL.II. I 0f