l8o -VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



holding counters at play. We never found any 

 arms in the places which they had recently quit- 

 ted ; no doubt they carried them away, or con- 

 cealed them carefully, for fear that we might 

 make ufe of them to their annoyance. 



A few ftraggling huts indicated a very icanty 

 population ; fome fhell-fifh, collected in fmall 

 heaps at a fhort diilance from the beach, left us 

 no doubt that the fea-fhores furnifhed princi- 

 pally the food of thefe favages. 



As we found only once fome human bones, 

 which even were partly burnt, it appears that 

 they leave not their dead expofed in the open 

 air. It is difficult to know if they are in the 

 conftant practice of burning them ; perhaps they 

 alfo inter them, or throw them into the fea. 



The multiplicity of paths, in which were dif- 

 covered the tracks of different quadrupeds, 

 evince that they arc here very numerous; doubt- 

 Iefs they keep during the day in the inacceffible 

 haunts of thefe thick forefts. 



A great number of fmall rivulets difcharged 

 themfelves into the harbour. The ground was 

 fo moift internally, that as foon as it was dug to 

 a little depth, the water almoft immediately filled 

 the cavity. 



Hooks and lines and the feine generally pro- 

 cured us fim in abundance ; a ftill far greater 



quantity 



