Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/378

320 That they are a very pusillanimous people we had reason to suppose from their conduct in every place where we were, except at Sting-ray's Bay, and then only two people opposed the landing of our two boats full of men for nearly a quarter of an hour, and were not to be driven away until several times wounded with small shot, which we were obliged to do, as at that time we suspected their lances to be poisoned, from the quantity of gum which was about their points. But upon every other occasion, both there and everywhere else, they behaved alike, shunning us, and giving up any part of the country we landed upon at once. That they use stratagems in war we learnt by the instance in Sting-ray's Bay, where our surgeon with another man was walking in the woods and met six Indians: they stood still, but directed another who was up a tree how and when he should throw a lance at them, which he did, and on its not taking effect they all ran away as fast as possible.

Their canoes were the only things in which we saw a manifest difference between the southern and northern people. Those to the southward were little better contrived or executed than their houses; a piece of bark tied together in plaits at the ends, and kept extended in the middle by small bows of wood, was the whole embarkation which carried one or two people, nay, we once saw three, who moved it along in shallow water with long poles, and in deeper with paddles about eighteen inches long, one of which they held in each hand. In the middle of these canoes was generally a small fire upon a heap of seaweed, for what purpose intended we did not know, except perhaps to give the fisherman an opportunity of eating fish in perfection, by broiling it the moment it is taken. To the northward their canoes, though exceedingly bad, were far superior to these; they were small, but regularly hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, and fitted with an outrigger to prevent them from upsetting. In these they had paddles large enough to require both hands to work them. Of this sort we saw few, and had an opportunity of examining only one of them, which might be about ten or eleven feet long, but was