243 A V O Y A G E T O 



The only iron tools, or rather bits of iron, feen amongft 

 them, and which they had before our arrival, were a piece 

 of iron hoop, about two inches long, fitted into a wooden 

 Imndle * ; and another edge-tool, which our people guejQTed 

 to be made of the point of a broad-fword. Their having 

 {he actual pofTeflion of thcfe, and their fo generally know- 

 ing the ufe of this metal, inclined fome on board to think, 

 that we had not been the firtt European vifiters of thefc 

 iflands. But, it feems to me, that the very great furprize 

 cxprefTcd by them, on feeing our fliips, and their total ig- 

 norance of the ufe of fire-arms, cannot be reconciled with 

 fuch a notion. There are many ways, by which fuch people 

 may get pieces of iron, or acquire the knowledge of the ex- 

 idence of fuch a metal, without having ever had an imme- 

 diate conne<5lion with nations that ufe it. It can hardly 

 be doubted, that it was unknown to all the inhabitants of 

 this fea, before Magellan led the way into it; for no difco- 

 verer, immediately after his voyage, ever found any of this 

 metal in their polleflion ; though, in the courfe of our late 

 voyages, it has been obferved, that the ufe of it was known 

 at fevcral iflands, to which no former European fliips had 

 ever, as far as we know, found their way. At all the places 

 where Mendana touched, in his two voyages, it mufl have 

 been feen and left; and this would extend the knowledge of 

 it, no doubt, to all the various iflands with which thofe, 

 whom he had vifitcd, had any immediate intercourfe. It 

 might even be carried farther ; and where fpccimens of this 

 favourite article could not be procured, defcriptions might, 

 in fome meafure, fcrvc to make it known, when afterward 

 feen. The next voyage to the Southward of the line, in 



• Captain King purchafcd this, and lias it now in his pofleflion. 



which 



