1770 INHABITANTS 231 



not let them think in the least. Whenever they met with 

 us and thought themselves superior they always attacked us, 

 though seldom seeming to intend more than to provoke us 

 to show them what we were able to do in this case. By 

 many trials we found that good usage and fair words would 

 not avail the least with them, nor would they be convinced 

 by the noise of our firearms alone that we were superior 

 to them ; but as soon as they had felt the smart of even a 

 load of small shot, and had time to recollect themselves 

 from the effects of their artificial courage, which commonly 

 took a day, they were sensible of our superiority and be- 

 came at once our good friends, upon all occasions placing 

 the most unbounded confidence in us. They are not, like 

 the islanders, 1 addicted to stealing ; but (if they could) would 

 sometimes, before peace was concluded, by offering anything 

 they had to sell, entice us to trust something of ours into 

 their hands, and refuse to return it with all the coolness in 

 the world, seeming to look upon it as the plunder of an 

 enemy. 



Neither of the sexes are quite so cleanly in their persons 

 as the islanders ; not having the advantage of so warm a 

 climate, they do not wash so often. But the disgustful thing 

 about them is the oil with which they daub their hair, 

 smelling something like a Greenland dock when they are 

 " trying " whale blubber. This is melted from the fat either 

 of fish or birds. The better sort indeed have it fresh, and 

 then it is entirely void of smell. 



Both sexes stain themselves in the same manner with 

 the colour of black, and somewhat in the same way as the 

 South Sea Islanders, introducing it under the skin by a 

 sharp instrument furnished with many teeth. The men 

 carry this custom to much greater lengths ; the women are 

 generally content with having their lips blacked, but some- 

 times have little patches of black on different parts of the 

 body. The man on the contrary seems to add to the 



1 Throughout the remainder of the Journal Banks constantly speaks of the 

 South Sea Islands simply as "the islands," and their inhabitants as "the 

 islanders." 



