1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 35 



that every little district of a country inhabited by 

 people so mild and placid, should be at enmity with 

 all the rest. But possibly more is to be gained by 

 victory among these people than at first appears, and 

 they may be prompted to mutual hostilities by motives 

 which no degree of friendship or affection is able to 

 resist. It appears, by the account that has already 

 been given of them, that their principal food is fish, 

 which can only be procured upon the sea-coast ; and 

 there, in sufficient quantities, only at certain times ; 

 the tribes, therefore, who live inland, if any such 

 there are, and even those upon the coast, must be 

 frequently in danger of perishing by famine. Their 

 country produces neither sheep, nor goats, nor hogs, 

 nor cattle; tame fowls they have none, nor any art 

 by which those that are wild can be caught in suffi- 

 cient plenty to serve as provision. If there are any 

 whose situation cuts them off from a supply of fish, 

 the only succedaneum of all other animal food, except 

 dogs, they have nothing to support life, but the ve- 

 getables that have already been mentioned, of which 

 the chief are fern-root, yams, clams, and potatoes ; 

 when by any accident these fail, the distress must be 

 dreadful ; and even among the inhabitants of the 

 coast, many tribes must frequently be reduced to 

 nearly the same situation, either by the failure of their 

 plantations, or the deficiency of their dry stock, 

 during the season when but few fish are to be caught. 

 These considerations will enable us to account, not 

 only for the perpetual danger in which the people 

 who inhabit this country appear to live, by the care 

 which they take to fortify every village, but for the 

 horrid practice of eating those who are killed in battle ; 

 for the hunger of him who is pressed by famine to 

 fight, will absorb every feeling, and every sentiment 

 which would restrain him from allaying it with the 

 body of his adversary. It may, however, be remarked, 

 that, if this account of the origin of so horrid a prac- 

 tice is true, the mischief does by no means end with 



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