Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/280

228 It was probably an inhabitant of this village who stole the sabre of Bonvouloir, as related above, for here we found the sheath and belt suspended over one of their tombs, as a kind of trophy.

Upon leaving this village, we followed a beaten path to the south-east, where we were not long before we saw some Caribbee cabbages (arum esculentum), planted near a rivulet, the stream of which the inhabitants of the island had turned off lower down to a plantation of arum macrorrhizon. Farther on we remarked some young banana trees planted at five or six yards distance from each other, as also some sugar canes.

Soon after this we were surrounded by at least forty of the natives, who came out from the adjacent huts, and from some straggling cottages scattered in an extensive plain covered with plants and shrubs, above which rose a small number of cocoa trees; but we were astonished to see only very few men amongst these savages, all of whom were either old or infirm, and most of them cripples. The remainder consisted of women and children, who testified much joy at receiving some presents of glass ware which we gave them. We presumed that the stout men were engaged at a distance in some expedition against their neighbours.