1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 311 



by the other. In the course of this conversation, 

 after the important points of divinity had been settled, 

 Tupia enquired if it was their practice to eat men, 

 to which they answered in the affirmative ; but said, 

 that they eat only their enemies who were slain in 

 battle. 



On the 26th, it rained all day, so that none of us 

 could go ashore ; and very few of the Indians came 

 either to the watering-place or the ship. 



On the 27th, I went with Dr. Solander to examine 

 the bottom of the bay ; but though we went ashore 

 at two places we met with little worth notice. The 

 people behaved very civilly, showing us every thing 

 that we expressed a desire to see. Among other 

 trifling curiosities which Dr. Solander purchased of 

 them, was a boy's top, shaped exactly like those 

 which children play with in England ; and they made 

 signs that to make it spin it was to be whipped. 

 Mr. Banks in the mean time went ashore at the 

 watering-place, and climbed a hill which stood at a 

 little distant to see a fence of poles, which we had 

 observed from the ship, and which had been much the 

 subject of speculation. The hill was extremely steep, 

 and rendered almost inaccessible by wood ; yet he 

 reached the place, near which he found many houses 

 that for some reason had been deserted by their in- 

 habitants. The poles appeared to be about sixteen 

 feet high ; they v;ere placed in two rows, with a space 

 of about six feet between them, and the poles in each 

 row were about ten feet distant from each other. 

 The lane between them was covered by sticks, that 

 were set up sloping towards each other from the top 

 of the poles on each side, like the roof of a house. 

 This rail- work, with a ditch that was parallel to it, was 

 carried about a hundred yards down the hill in a kind 

 of curve ; but for what purpose we could not guess. 



The Indians, at the watering-place, at our request, 

 entertained us with their war-song, in which the 

 women joined, with the most horrid distortions of 



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