1774. ■ when I con'fider the light in which theymuft view us. It was
. Al‘s“lt' ,• impoffible for them to know our real defign; we enter their
Sunda)' '*• ports without their daring to oppofe ; we endeavour to land
in their country as friends, and it is well if this fucceeds; we
land, neverthelefs, and maintain the footing we have got, by
the fuperiority of our fire-arms. Under fitch cixcumftanees,
what opinion are they to'form of us ? Is it not as reafonable
for them to think that we come to invade their country, as to
pay them a friendly vifit ? Time, and fome acquaintance with
us, can only convince them of the latter. Thefe people are
yet in a rude Hate'; and, if we may judge from circunlftances.
and appearances, are frequently at war, not only-with their
neighbours, but among themfelves.; confequently muft be
jealous of every new face. I will allow there are fome exr
ceptions to this rule to be found in this fea; but there are
few nations who would willingly fuffer vifiters like us to
advance far into their country.
Before this excurfion fome of us had been of opinion,
that thefe people were addifled to an unnatural paffion, be-
eaufe they had endeavoured to entice fome of our men into
the woods ; and, in particular, I was told, that one who had
the care of Mr. Forfter’s plant bag, had been, once or twice,
attempted. As the carrying of bundles, &c. is the office of the
women in this country, it had occurred to me, and I was not
Angular in this, that the natives might miftake him, and fome
others, for women. My conjecture was fully verified this,
day. For this man, who was one of the party, and carried
the bag as ufual, following me down the hill, by the words
which I underftood of the convention of the natives, and
by their actions, I was well affined that they confidered him
as a female; till, by fome means, they difcovered their
miftake,
•miftake, on which they cried out, Erramange / .Erramange! *77^
It’s a man ! It’s a man! The thing was fo palpable that every
one was obliged to acknowledge, that they had before mif-
takenhisfex; and that, after they were undeceived, they
feemed not to have the leaft notion of what we had fufpected.
This circumftance will fhew how liable we .are to form
wrong conjectures of things, among people whofe language
we are ignorant of. Had it not been for this difcovery, I
make no doubt that thefe people would have been charged
with this vile cuftom.
In the evening I took a walk with fome of the gentlemen,
into the country on the other fide of the harbour, where we
had very different treatment from what we had met with in
the morning. The people we now vifited, among whom
was our friend Paowang, being better acquainted with us,
fhewed a readinefs to oblige us in every thing in their power.
We came to the village which had been vifited on the gth.
It confided of about twenty houfes, the moft of which need
no other defcription than comparing them to the roof of a
thatched houfe in England, taken off the walls and placed on
the ground. Some were open at both ends; others partly
clofed with reeds; and all were covered with palm thatch. A
few of them were thirty or forty feet long, and fourteen or fix-
teen broad. Befides thefe, they have other mean hovels, Which,
1 conceived, were only tq fleep in. Some o f thefe flood in a
plantation, and I was given to underftand, that in one of
them lay a dead corpfe. They made figns that defcribed
fleep, or death; and circumftances pointed out the latter.
Curious to fee all I could, I prevailed on an elderly man to
go with me to the hut, which was feparated from the others
by a reed fence, built quite round it at the diftance of four
K 2 or