3C6 AVOYAGETO 



'778. kept (Irewing handfuls of feathers toward us*; and feme of 

 V— '—v — I liis companions threw handfuls of a red duft or powder in 

 the fame manner. The perfon who played the orator, 

 wore the fliin of fome animal, and held, in each hand, 

 fomething which rattled as he kept iliaking it. After tiring 

 himfelf with his repeated exhortations, of which we did 

 not underlland a word, he was quiet ; and then others took 

 it, by turns, to fay fomething, though they adcd their part 

 neither fo long, nor with fo much vehemence as the other. 

 Wc obferved that two or three had their hair quite ftrewcd 

 over with fmall white feathers ; and others had large ones 

 fluck into different parts of the head. After the tumul- 

 tuous noife had ceafed, they lay at a little diftance from the 

 fhip, and converfed with each other in a very eafy manner ; 

 nor did they feem to fliew the lead furprize or diftrufl:. 

 Some of them, now and ilien, got up, and faid fomething 

 after the manner of their firft harangues ; and one fung a 

 very agreeable air, with a degree of foftnefs and melody 

 which we could not have expected ; the word haela., being 

 often repeated as the burden of the fong. The breeze 

 which foon after fm;ung up, bringing us nearer to the fhore, 

 the canoes began to come oiTin greater numbers ; and we had, 

 at one time, thirty-two of them near the fliip, carrying from 

 three to feven or eight p^rfons each, both men and women. 

 Several of thefe flood up in their canoes haranguing, and 

 making gellures afrer the manner of our firll vifiters. One 

 canoe was remarkable for a Angular head, which had a 

 bird's eye and bill, of an enormous fize, painted on it; and 

 a perfon who was in it, who fcemcd to be a Chief, was no 



* The natives of this coaft, twelve degrees farther South, alfo brought feathers as 

 prefents to Sir Francis Drake 011 his arrival. See an accoujit of his voyage in Camp- 

 i'nTs(dit.o/Hurris, Vol. i. p. i8. 



lefs 



