A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

of a negroe. Their beards are very strong, crisp, and bushy, and generally black and short. But what mostadds to their deformity, is a belt or cord which they wear round the waist, and tie so tight over the belly,that the shape of their bodies is not unlike that of an overgrown pismire. The men go quite naked, except apiece of cloth or leaf used as a wrapper.[4][4] The particular manner of applying the wrapper may be seen in Wafer's voyage, who mentionsthis singular custom as existing, though with some little variation, amongst the Indians of theIsthmus of Darien. See Wafer's Voyage, p. 140.We saw but few women, and they were not less ugly than the men; their heads, faces, and shoulders, arepainted red; they wear a kind of petticoat; and some of them had something over their shoulders like a bag,in which they carry their children. None of them came off to the ship, and they generally kept at a distancewhen we were on shore. Their ornaments are ear-rings, made of tortoise-shell and bracelets. A curious oneof the latter, four or five inches broad, wrought with thread or cord, and studded with shells, is worn bythem just above the elbow. Round the right wrist they wear hogs' tusks, bent circular, and rings made ofshells; and round their left, a round piece of wood, which we judged was to ward off the bow- string. Thebridge of the nose is pierced, in which they wear a piece of white stone, about an inch and a half long. Assigns of friendship they present a green branch, and sprinkle water with the hand over the head.Their weapons are clubs, spears, and bows and arrows. The two former are made of hard or iron-wood.Their bows are about four feet long, made of a stick split down the middle, and are not circular. Thearrows, which are a sort of reeds, are sometimes armed with a long and sharp point, made of the hardwood, and sometimes with a very hard point made of bone; and these points are all covered with asubstance which we took for poison. Indeed the people themselves confirmed our suspicions, by makingsigns to us not to touch the point, and giving us to understand that if we were prickled by them we shoulddie. They are very careful of them themselves, and keep them, always wrapped up in a quiver. Some ofthese arrows are formed with two or three points, each with small prickles on the edges, to prevent thearrow being drawn out of the wound.The people of Mallicollo seemed to be a quite different nation from any we had yet met with, and speak adifferent language. Of about eighty words, which Mr Forster collected, hardly one bears any affinity to thelanguage spoken at any other island or place I had ever been at. The letter R is used in many of their words;and frequently two or three being joined together, such words we found difficult to pronounce. I observedthat they could pronounce most of our words with great ease. They express their admiration by hissing likea goose.To judge of the country by the little water we saw of it, it must be fertile; but I believe their fruits are not sogood as those of the Society or Friendly Isles. Their cocoa-nut trees, I am certain, are not; and their breadfruitand plantains did not seem much better. But their yams appeared to be very good. We saw no otheranimals than those I have already mentioned. They have not so much as a name for a dog, andconsequently have none, for which reason we left them a dog and a bitch; and there is no doubt they willbe taken care of, as they were very fond of them.[5][5] "The productions of Mallicollo are less remarkable and striking at first sight than the race of itsinhabitants. To judge of their numbers from the crowd we saw at Port Sandwich, I should conclude,that they are far from inconsiderable; but considering the great size of the island, I cannot suppose itto be very populous. Fifty thousand is, I think, the greatest number we can admit, and these are notconfined to the skirts of the hills, as at Otaheite, but dispersed over the whole extent of more than six