1777- THE TACIFIC OCEAN. 201 



instant. I took particular notice that no one ne- 

 glected this precaution. While the men were em- 

 ployed in raising the huts, the women were not idle. 

 Some were stationed to take care of the canoes ; 

 others to secure the provisions, and the few utensils 

 in their possession ; and the rest went to gather dry 

 sticks, that a fire might be prepared for dressing their 

 victuals. As to the children, I kept them, as also 

 some of the more aged, sufficiently occupied in 

 scrambling for beads, till I had emptied my pockets, 

 and then I left them. 



These temporary habitations are abundantly suffi- 

 cient to afford shelter from the wind and rain, which 

 is the only purpose they are meant to answer. I 

 observed that, generally, if not always, the same 

 tribe or family, though it were ever so large, asso- 

 ciated and built together ; so that we frequently saw 

 a village, as well as their larger towns, divided into 

 different districts, by low pallisades, or some similar 

 mode of separation. 



The advantage we received from the natives com- 

 ing to live with us, was not inconsiderable. For, 

 every day, when the weather would permit, some of 

 them went out to catch fish ; and we generally got, 

 by exchanges, a good share of the produce of their 

 labours. This supply, and what our own nets and 

 lines afforded us, was so ample, that we seldom were 

 in want of fish. Nor was there any deficiency of 

 other refreshments. Celery, scurvy-grass, and port- 

 able soup, were boiled with the peas and wheat, for 

 both ships' companies, every day during our whole 

 stay ; and they had spruce-beer for their drink. So 

 that, if any of our people had contracted the seeds of 

 the scurvy, such a regimen soon removed them. But 

 the truth is, when we arrived here* there were only 

 two invalids (and these on board the Resolution) 

 upon the sick lists in both ships. 



Besides the natives who took up their abode close 

 to us, we were occasionally visited bv others of them, 



