1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 379 



bones with the flesh remaining upon them, and upon 

 their answering us that all had been eaten, we affected 

 to disbeh'eve that the bones were human, and said that 

 they were the bones of a dog ; upon which one of the 

 Indians, with some eagerness, took hold of his own 

 fore-arm, and thrusting it towards us, said, that the 

 bone which Mr. Banks held in his hand had belonged 

 to that part of the human body ; at the same time, to 

 convince us that the flesh had been eaten, he took 

 hold of his own arm with his teeth, and made show 

 of eating : he also bit and gnawed the bone which 

 Mr. Banks had taken, drawing it through his mouth, 

 and showing, by signs, that it had afforded a deli- 

 cious repast ; the bone was then returned to Mr. 

 Banks, and he brought it away with him. Among 

 the persons of this family, there was a woman who 

 had her arms, legs, and thighs, frightfully cut in 

 several places ; and we were told that shehad inflicted 

 the wounds upon herself, in token of her grief for 

 the loss of her husband, who had been lately killed 

 and eaten by their enemies, who had come from 

 some place to the eastward, towards which the 

 Indians pointed. 



The ship lay at the distance of somewhat less 

 than a quarter of a mile from the shore, and in the 

 morning we were awakened by the singing of the 

 birds : the number was incredible, and they seemed 

 to strain their throats in emulation of each other* 

 This wild melody was infinitely superior to any that 

 we had ever heard of the same kind ; it seemed to 

 be like small bells, most exquisitely tuned, and per- 

 haps the distance, and the water between, might be 

 no small advantage to the sound. Upon inquiry, we 

 were informed that the birds here always began to 

 sing about two hours after midnight, and continuing 

 their music till sunrise, were, like our nightingales, 

 silent the rest of the day. In the forenoon, a small 

 canoe came off from, the Indian village to the ship, 

 and among those that were in it, was the old man 



