to the North-West Coast of America. 7* 



they receive from the hands of their prince as the^reward 

 of tlieir sei-vices. 



The inhabitants of Nootka do not amount to more than 

 2000. Of late, the venereal disease has been introduced 

 among them ; so that they are threatened with the fate of 

 the old inhabitants of California, who have been almost 

 entirely destroyed by this destructive scourge. But this is 

 not the only inconvenience which attends their intercourse 

 with Europeans. Luxury begins to make considerable pro- 

 gress among them, and gives birth to passions with which 

 they were before unacquainted, — avarice and its shameful 

 train ; and Macuina, humane as he is, has already been 

 obliged to establish the punishment of death in order to 

 suppress theft. 



But there are also indigenous vices in this quarter of the 

 globe. The Indians of Nootka are anthropophagi. They 

 do not deny it : and after all we have said of Macuina, will 

 it be believed that he still adheres to this horrible custom ? 

 Captain Meares learned from two of his officers, that at 

 every new moon a slave was killed to regale their master^ 

 and that this atrocious act was accompanied with mirth and 

 amusements. The Spaniards, however, flatter themselves 

 that since they have been settled at Nootka the manners of 

 these people have become softened ; whether the horror they 

 expressed at this practice made an impression on their sim- 

 ple minds, the depravation of which cannot be incurable, 

 or that the victims they sacrificed, being taken from among 

 the prisoners of war, the source of them has been dried up 

 by the peace which the inhabitants of Nootka have enjoyed 

 since 1 789. 



We shall pass over what the editor of this voyage says in 

 regard to the dress, ornaments, masquerades, arms, build- 

 ings, canoes, food, and occupations of these people. Par- 

 ticulars are given in regard to all these points, which are 

 not to be found in the voyage of captain Vancouver. We 

 shall only observe that the Indians of Nootka differ in no- 

 thing from the other American tribes but in the pyramidal 

 form of their heads, which must be ascribed only to the 

 strong ligatures by which they are compressed in the cradle. 

 We shall add, that they are much less copper-coloured than 

 the Mexicans, and that M. Pauw, had he seen them, would 

 have ceased to maintain that all the inhabitants of America 

 are beardless. The young Indians of Nootka appear, in- 

 deed, to hav-e no beards, because they employ great care to 

 pull the hair up by the roots ; but adult males have beards 

 like the Europeans, and the Spaniards have seen among 

 A 4 thua 



