1770. ROUND THE WORLD, 213 



ders and breast, and the white in stripes, some nar- 

 row, and some broad : the narrow were drawn over 

 the limbs, and the broad over the body, not without 

 some degree of taste. The white was also laid on in 

 small patches upon the face, and drawn in a circle 

 round each eye. The red seemed to be ochre, but 

 what the white was we could not discover : it was 

 close grained, saponaceous to the touch, and almost 

 as heavy as white lead ; possibly it might be a kind 

 of Steatites, but to our great regret we could not pro- 

 cure a bit of it to examine. They have holes in their 

 ears, but we never saw any thing worn in them. 

 Upon such ornaments as they had, they set so great 

 a value, that they would never part with the least 

 article for any thing we could offer ; which was the 

 more extraordinary, as our beads and ribbons were 

 ornaments of the same kind, but of a more regular 

 form and more showy materials. They had, indeed, 

 no idea of traffic, nor could we communicate any to 

 them : they received the things that we gave them, 

 but never appeared to understand our signs when we 

 required a return. The same indifference which pre- 

 vented them from buying what we had, prevented 

 them also from attempting to steal : if they had co- 

 veted more, they would have been less honest ; for 

 when we refused to give them a turtle, they were en- 

 raged, and attempted to take it by force, and we had 

 nothing else upon which they seemed to set the least 

 value ; for, as I have before observed, many of the 

 things that we had given them we found left negli- 

 gently about in the woods, like the playthings of 

 children, which please only while they are new. 

 Upon their bodies we saw no marks of disease or 

 sores, but large scars in irregular lines, which ap- 

 peared to be the remains of wounds which they had 

 inflicted upon themselves with some blunt instrument, 

 and which we understood by signs to have been 

 memorials of grief for the dead. 



They appeared to have no fixed habitations, for we 



p 3 



