332 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



well calculated for every useful purpose. Even the largest, 

 which carry twenty people or more, are formed of one tree. 

 Many of them are forty feet long, seven broad, and about 

 three deep. For the most part they are without any 

 ornament, but some have a little carving, and are decorated 

 by setting seals' teeth on the surface like studs, as is 

 the practice on their masks and weapons. A few have 

 likewise a kind of additional head or prow, like a large 

 cutwater, which is painted with the figure of some 

 animal. 



" Their principal tools are the chisel and the knife. The 

 chisel is a long flat piece fitted into a handle of wood. A 

 stone serves for a mallet, and a piece of fish skin for a 

 polisher. I have seen some of these chisels that were eight 

 or ten inches long, and three or four inches broad, but in 

 general they were smaller. The knives are of various sizes, 

 some very large. 



" Iron, which they call seekemaile (which name they also 

 give to tin, and all white metals) is familiar to them. Yet 

 we never observed the least sign of their having seen ships 

 like ours before, nor of their having traded with such people. 

 They expressed no marks of surprise at seeing our ships ; 

 nor were they even startled at the report of a musket ; till 

 one day, upon their endeavouring to make us sensible that 

 their arrows and spears could not penetrate the hide-dresses, 

 one of our gentlemen shot a musket ball through one of 

 them folded six times. At this they were so much staggered, 

 that they plainly discovered their ignorance of the effect 

 of firearms. This was very often confirmed afterward 

 when we used them at their village, and other places, 

 to shoot birds, the manner of which plainly confounded 

 them. 



" The most probable way by which we can suppose that 

 they get their iron, is by trading for it with the other 

 Indian tribes, who either have immediate communication 

 with European settlements upon that continent, or receive 

 it, perhaps, through several intermediate nations. The 

 same might be said of the brass and copper found amongst 

 them. 



" We could observe that there are such men as chiefs, 

 who are distinguished by the name or title of Acweek, and 

 to whom the others are in some measure subordinate. But 

 I should guess the authority of each of these great men 

 extends no farther than the family to which he belongs, and 

 who own him as their head. These Acweeks were not 

 always elderly men ; from which I concluded that this 

 title came to them by inheritance. 



" Their language is by no means harsh or disagreeable, 



