1?71'. ROUND THE WORLD. 33 



careful of them themselves, and keep them always 

 wrapped up in a quiver. Some of these arrows are 

 armed with two or three points, each with small 

 prickles on the edges, to prevent the arrow being 

 drawn out of the wound. 



The people of Mallicollo seemed to be a quite dif- 

 ferent nation from any we had yet met with, and 

 speak a different language. Of about eighty words 

 which Mr. Forster collected, hardly one bears any 

 affinity to the language spoken at any other island 

 or place I had ever been at. The letter R is used 

 in many of their words ; and frequently two or 

 three being joined together, such words we found 

 difficult to pronounce. I observed that they could 

 pronounce most of our words with great ease. They 

 express their admiration by hissing like a goose. 



To judge of the country by the little we saw of it, 

 it must be fertile ; but I believe their fruits are not 

 so good as those of the Society or Friendly Isles. 

 Their cocoa-nut trees, I am certain, are not; and 

 their bread-fruit and plantains did not seem much 

 better. But their yams appeared to be very good. 

 We saw no other animals than those I have already 

 mentioned. They have not so much as a name for a 

 dog, and consequently have none; for which reason we 

 left them a dog and a bitch ; and there is no doubt 

 they will be taken care oi\ as they were very fond of 

 them. 



After we had got to sea, we tried what effect one 

 of the poisoned arrows would have on a dog. Indeed 

 we had tried it in the harbour the very first night, 

 but we thought the operation had been too slight, as 

 it had no effect. The surgeon now made a deep 

 incision in the dog's thigh, into which he laid a 

 large portion of the poison just as it was scraped 

 from the arrows, and then bound up the wound with 

 a bandage. For several days after, we thought the 

 dog was not so well as he had been before ; but 

 whether this was really so, or only suggested by 



VOL. IV. d 



