The tide of flood sets to the north, and the ebb to the south. It rises and falls, upon a perpendicular, five or six feet; and I reckon it to be high water, on the full and change days, at eight o’clock. Having weighed at three in the morning on the 21st, with a light breeze at N. N. W., we steered back to the southward, having three boats ahead to direct us. But, notwithstanding this precaution, we found more difficulty in returning than we had in advancing; and at last were obliged to anchor, to avoid running upon a shoal, which had only a depth of five feet. While we lay here, twenty-seven men of the country, each in a canoe, came off to the ships, which they approached with great caution; hollowing and opening their arms as they advanced. This we understood was to express their pacific intentions. At length some approached near enough to receive a few trifles that were thrown to them: this encouraged the rest to venture along-side; and a traffic presently commenced between them and our people, who got dresses of skins, bows, arrows, darts, wooden vessels, &c.; our visitors taking in exchange for these whatever was offered them. They seemed to be the same sort of people that we had of late met with all along this coast; wore the same kind of ornaments in their lips and noses; but were far more dirty, and not so well clothed. They appeared to be wholly unacquainted with people like us: they knew not the use of tobacco; nor was any foreign article seen in their possession, unless a knife may be looked upon as such. This, indeed, was only a piece of common iron fitted in a wooden handle, so as to answer the purpose of a knife. They, however, knew the value and use of this instrument so well, that it seemed to be the only article they wished for. Most of them had their hair shaved, or cut short off, leaving only a few locks behind, or on one side. For a covering for the head they wore a hood of skins, and a bonnet which appeared to be of wood. One part of their dress, which we got from them, was a kind of girdle, very neatly made of skin, with trappings depending from it, and passing between the legs, so as to conceal the adjoining parts. By the use of such a girdle, it should seem that they sometimes go naked, even in this high latitude; for they hardly wear it under their other clothing. The canoes were made of skins, like all the others we had lately seen; only with this difference, that these were broader, and the hole in which the man sits was wider than in any I had before met with. Our boats returning from sounding seemed to alarm them; so that they all left us sooner than probably they would otherwise have done.