A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
station for those who defend the place, from which they may annoy the
assailants by darts and stones, heaps of which lay ready for use.
Another stage of the same kind commands the steep avenue from the beach,
and stands also within the pallisade; on this side of the hill there are
some little outworks and huts, not intended as advanced posts, but as
the habitations of people who for want of room could not be accommodated
within the works, but who were, notwithstanding, desirous of placing
themselves under their protection. The pallisades, as has been observed
already, ran round the whole brow of the hill, as well towards the sea
as towards the land; but the ground within having originally been a
mount, they have reduced it not to one level, but to several, rising in
stages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of which is
inclosed within its separate pallisade; they communicate with each other
by narrow lanes, which might easily be stopt up, so that if an enemy
should force the outward pallisade, he would have others to carry before
the place could be wholly reduced, supposing these places to be
obstinately defended one after the other. The only entrance is by a
narrow passage, about twelve feet long, communicating with the steep
ascent from the beach: It passes under one of the fighting stages, and
though we saw nothing like a door or gateway, it may be easily
barricaded in a manner that will make the forcing it a very dangerous
and difficult undertaking. Upon the whole, this must be considered as a
place of great strength, in which a small number of resolute men may
defend themselves against all the force which a people with no other
arms than those that are in use here could bring against it. It seemed
to be well furnished for a siege with every thing but water; we saw
great quantities of fern root, which they eat as bread, and dried fish
piled up in heaps; but we could not perceive that they had any fresh
water nearer than a brook, which runs close under the foot of the hill:
Whether they have any means of getting it from this place during a
siege, or whether they have any method of storing it within the works in
gourds or other vessels, we could not learn; some resource they
certainly have with respect to this article, an indispensable necessary
of life, for otherwise the laying up dry provisions could answer no
purpose. Upon our expressing a desire to see their method of attack and
defence, one of the young men mounted a fighting stage, which they call
_Porava_, and another went into the ditch: Both he that was to defend
the place, and he that was to assault it, sung the war-song, and danced
with the same frightful gesticulations that we had seen used in more
serious circumstances, to work themselves up into a degree of that
mechanical fury, which, among all uncivilized nations, is the necessary
prelude to a battle; for dispassionate courage, a strength of mind that
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