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74 which, perhaps, as a very important instrument, ought to have been mentioned in an earlier part of this narrative. The heads of these instruments are made from a hard black stone, split into a convenient thickness, without much regard to shape. This they rub with a very rough granite stone, until it is brought to a fine thin edge, and so hard and sharp as to enable them to fell a very large tree with it. There is only one place that I ever heard of in that country, where this hard and splitting stone is to be had. The natives call it karkeen; and say, that it is at a distance of three hundred miles from the coast, inland. The journey to fetch them is, therefore, one of great danger and difficulty; the tribes who inhabit the immediate localities being very savage, and hostile to all others. I was told, that it required an armed party of resolute fighting men, to obtain supplies of this very necessary article; so that the tomahawk is considered valuable for all purposes. They vary in weight from four to fourteen pounds; the handles being thick pieces of wood split, and then doubled up, the stone being in the bend, and fixed with gum, very carefully prepared for the purpose, so as to make it perfectly secure when bound round with sinews.

A messenger now came from another tribe, to tell us they would be glad to see our party near a river they called Booneawillock—so named from a sort of eels they call Boonea—with which that stream abounds. It was very much swollen, in consequence of heavy floods, so that we could not cross it, to join our friends;