'774- &c. to all appearance, as if they never had had any among; November. . ■rA , a
Wednef. 9.
I am fatisfied that the people in this Sound, who are, upon
the whole, pretty numerous, are under no regular form of
government, or fo united as to form one body politic. The
head of each tribe, or family, feems to be refpedted; and
that refpeft may, on fome occafions, command obedience ;
but I doubt if any amongft them have either a right or
power to enforce it. • The day we were with Tringo-boohee,
the people came from all parts to fee us, which he endeavoured
to prevent. But though he went fo far as to throw
ftones at fome, I obferved that very few paid, any regard
either to his words or actions; and yet this man was fpoken
of as a chief of fome note. I have, before, made fome remarks
on the evils attending thefe people for want of union
among themfelves; and the more I was acquainted with
them, the more I found it to be fo. Notwithftanding they
are cannibals, they are naturally of a good difpofition, and
have not a little humanity.
In the afternoon a party of us went alhore into one of the
coves, where were two families of the natives varioufly
employed ; fome ileeping, fome making mats, others roaft-
ing fifh and fir roots, and one girl, I obferved, was heating
of Hones, Curious to know what they were for, I remained
■ near her. As foon as . the Hones were made hot, fhe took
them out of the fire, and gave them to an old woman, who
was fitting in the hut. Mr placed them in a heap, laid over
them.a handful of green cellery, and over that a coarfe mat,
and then fquatted herfelf down, on her heels, oh the top of
a ll; thus making a kind of Dutch warming-pan, on which
fhe fat as clofe as a hare on her feat. I fhould hardly have
mentioned
mentioned this operation, if I had thought it hadno other view
than to warm the old woman’s backfide. I rather fuppofe it
was intended to cure fome diforder fhe might have on her,
which the fleams arifing from the green cellery might be
a fpecific for. I was led to think fo by there being hardly any
cellery in the place, we having gathered it long before ; and
grafs, of which there was great plenty, would have kept the
flones from burning the mat full as well, if that had been
all that was meant. Befides, the woman looked to me flckly
and not in a good ftate of health.
Mr. Wales, from time to time communicated to me the ob-
fervations he had made in this Sound for determining the
longitude, the mean refults of which give 174° 25' 7" 4 Eaft,
for the bottom of Ship Cove, where the obfervations were
made; and the latitude of it is 41° 5' 56" f South. In my
chart, conftituted in my former voyage, this place is laid
down in 184° 54' 30" Weft, equal to 1750 5' 30" Eaft. The
error of the chart is therefore oG 40' o", and nearly equal to
what was found at Dufky Bay; by which it appears that
the whole of Tavai-poenammoo, is laid down 40' too far
Eaft in the faid chart, as well as in the journal of the voyage.
But the error in Eahei no-mauwe, is not more than
half a degree, or thirty minutes; becaufe the diftance between
Queen Charlotte’s Sound and Cape Pallifer has been
found to be greater by 10' of longitude than it is laid down
in the chart. I mention thefe errors, not from a fear that
they will affect either navigation or geography, but becaufe
I have no doubt of their exiftence ; for, from the multitude
of obfervations which Mr. Wales took, the fituation of few
parts of the world is better afcertained than Queen Charlotte’s
found. Indeed, I might, with equal truth, fay the
v ° i " lr- 1 fame