TO KAMTSCHATKA. l65 



ours, and their being armed with lances, gave them 

 this courage, which they tried to express by their 

 savage cries. As I, at last, was not able to do any 

 thing, I ordered a musket to be fired, and this had 

 its effect ; for, in a moment, they all sprung out of 

 tlieir boats, and dived into the sea. The rapidity 

 with which all this was done had a most singular 

 effect ; a dead silence immediately succeeded the 

 most terrible noise, and a vast grave seemed to 

 have swallowed them all, till, by degrees, one head 

 after the other became visible on the surface. 

 Terror and astonishment were expressed in every 

 face. They first carefully looked about to see what 

 damage this loud report had done, and it was not 

 till they saw there was none, that they got into 

 their boats again. Their importunity had now 

 changed into modesty : of all our things, nothing 

 pleased them so much as the large nails, and it 

 was only with these that we were able to obtain 

 from them several very neatly-made lances of 

 black wood, and some other arms. 



I may compare these islanders, for size and 

 strength, with the inliabitants of the Marquesas ; 

 their countenances may also be similar, though 

 the people of the Marquesas islands appeared to 

 me handsomer, and of a lighter colour. I cannot 

 judge of the women, as I only saw two of them, 

 and they were old and very ugly. They are of the 

 same happy and childish disposition as the other 

 South Sea islanders, only their behaviour is more 



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