1774. ROUND THE WOULD. 7*5 



with which they take the most pains in point 

 of neatness, come far short of some others we had 

 seen. Their weapons are clubs, spears, or darts^ 

 bows and arrows, and stones. The clubs are of 

 three or four kinds, and from three to five feet 

 long. They seem to place most dependence on the 

 darts, which are pointed with three bearded edges. 

 In throwing them they make use of a becket, that is, 

 a piece of stiff plaited cord about six inches long, 

 with an eye in one end and a knot at the other. 

 The eye is fixed on the fore-finger of the right hand, 

 and the other end is hitched round the dart, where 

 it is nearly on an equipoise. They hold the dart be- 

 tween the thumb and remaining fingers, which serve 

 only to give it direction, the velocity being communi- 

 cated by the becket and fore-finger. The former 

 flies off from the dart the instant its velocity becomes 

 greater than that of the hand, but it remains on the 

 finger ready to be used again. With darts they kill 

 both birds and fish, and are sure of hitting a mark, 

 within the compass of the crown of a hat, at the dis- 

 tance of eight or ten yards ; but, at double that dis- 

 tance, it is chance if they hit a mark the size of a 

 man's body, though they will throw the weapon 

 sixty or seventy yards. They always throw with all 

 their might, let the distance be what it will. Darts, 

 bows and arrows, are to them what muskets are to 

 us. The arrows are made of reeds pointed with hard 

 wood : some are bearded and some not, and those 

 for shooting birds have two, three, and sometimes 

 four points. The stones they use are, in general, 

 the branches of coral rocks from eight to fourteen 

 inches long, and from an inch to an inch and a half in 

 diameter. I know not if they employ them as mis- 

 sive weapons; almost every one of them carries a club, 

 and besides that, either darts, or a bow and arrows, 

 but never both : those who had stones kept them ge- 

 nerally in their belts. 



I cannot conclude this account of their arms with- 



