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
On the 18th, the Indians were more quiet than usual, no canoe came near
the ship, nor did we see one of them moving on the shore, their fishing,
and other usual occupations, being totally suspended. We thought they
expected an attack on this day, and therefore attended more diligently
to what passed on shore; but we saw nothing to gratify our curiosity.
After breakfast, we went out in the pinnace, to take a view of the bay,
which was of vast extent, and consisted of numberless small harbours and
coves, in every direction: We confined our excursion, however, to the
western side, and the country being an impenetrable forest where we
landed, we could see nothing worthy of notice: We killed, however, a
good number of shaggs, which we saw sitting upon their nests in the
trees, and which, whether roasted or stewed, we considered as very good
provision. As we were returning, we saw a single man in a canoe fishing;
we rowed up to him, and to our great surprise he took not the least
notice of us, but even when we were alongside of him, continued to
follow his occupation, without adverting to us any more than if we had
been invisible. He did not, however, appear to be either sullen or
stupid: We requested him to draw up his net, that we might examine it,
and he readily complied: It was of a circular form, extended by two
hoops, and about seven or eight feet in diameter: The top was open, and
sea-ears were fastened to the bottom as a bait: This he let down so as
to lie upon the ground, and when he thought fish enough were assembled
over it, he drew it up by a very gentle and even motion, so that the
fish rose with it, scarcely sensible that they were lifted, till they
came very near the surface of the water, and then were brought out in
the net by a sudden jerk. By this simple method, he had caught abundance
of fish, and indeed they are so plenty in this bay, that the catching
them requires neither much labour nor art.
This day, some of our people found in the skirts of the wood, near a
hole or oven, three human hip-bones, which they brought on board; a
farther proof that these people eat human flesh: Mr Monkhouse, our
surgeon, also brought on board, from a place where he saw many deserted
houses, the hair of a man's head, which he had found, among many other
things, tied up to the branches of trees.
In the morning of the 19th, we set up the armourer's forge to repair the
braces of the tiller, and other iron-work, all hands on board being
still busy in careening, and other necessary operations about the
vessel: This day, some Indians came on board from another part of the
bay, where they said was a town which we had not seen: They brought
plenty of fish, which they sold for nails, having now acquired some
notion of their use; and in this traffic no unfair practice was
attempted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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