SSii cook's l^IRST VOYAGE NOV. 



no Other arms than those that are in use here could 

 bring against it. It seemed to be well furnished for 

 a siege with every thing but water ; we saw great 

 quantities of fern root, which they eat as bread, and 

 dried fish piled up in heaps ; but we could not per- 

 ceive that they had any fresh water nearer than a 

 brook, whicli runs close under the foot of the hill : 

 whether they have any means of getting it from this 

 place during a siege, or whether they have any method 

 of storing it within the works in gourds or other 

 vessels, we could not learn ; some resource they 

 certainly have with respect to this article, an indis- 

 pensable necessary of life, for otherwise the laying up 

 dry provisions could answer no purpose. Upon our 

 expressing a desire to see their method of attack and 

 defence, one of the young men mounted a fighting- 

 stage, which they call Porava^ and another went 

 into the ditch : both he that was to defend the 

 place, and he that was to assault it, sung the war- 

 song, and danced with the same frightful gesticu- 

 lations that we had seen used in more serious cir- 

 cumstances, to work themselves up into a degree of 

 that mechanical fury, which, among all uncivilized 

 nations, is the necessary prelude to a battle ; for dis- 

 passionate courage, a strength of mind that can sur- 

 mount the sense of danger, without a flow of animal 

 spirits by which it is extinguished, seems to be the 

 prerogative of those who have projects of more lasting 

 importance, and a keener sense of honour and dis- 

 grace, than can be formed or felt by men who have 

 few pains or pleasures besides those of mere animal 

 life, and scarcely any purpose but tq provide for the 

 day that is passing over them, to obtain plunder, or 

 revenge an insult: they will march against each other 

 indeed in cool blood, though they find it necessary 

 to work themselves into passion before they en- 

 gage ; as among us there have been many instances 

 of people who have deliberately made themselves 

 drunk, that they might execute a project which they 



