Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/112

88 In exchange for our articles, these people gave us almost every thing they had in their canoes; and, which we considered as a mark of the greatest confidence, they made not the least difficulty at disposing of all their weapons to us.

The largest of the spears they gave us were not above five yards long, and an inch and half thick: the smallest were only half that length. They were all made of a single piece of very hard wood, which they had rendered perfectly smooth.

They gave us fishing lines, and hooks of different shapes; to the end of some of which feathers were fastened, which they use as a bait for voracious fishes. Several of these lines were of great length, and had at the end a piece of hard serpentine, to make them sink very deep in the water. We admired the fine polish they had given this stone, which was of a spherical form, surmounted with a small protuberance, in which they had made a hole, to pass a string through. It must be very difficult to these savages to bore a stone of such hardness, and no doubt requires a great deal of time; but they have much leisure for such employments, for their wants are few, and the sea supplies them with food in abundance. They sold us a great deal of fish, which they had just caught; and there is such a quantity along the coast, that, during the short time we lay to,