1770 WEAPONS 245 



sharp : with these they chop at the heads of their antagonists 

 when an opportunity offers. 



The patoo-patoos, as they called them, are a kind of 

 small hand bludgeon of stone, bone, or hard wood, most 

 admirably adapted for the cracking of skulls ; they are of 

 different shapes, some like an ^-v r~\ old-fashioned 



chopping-knife, others like this, //x or C^ ' ; always how- 

 ever, having sharp edges, ^ v^ and sufficient 

 weight to make a second blow unnecessary if the first takes 

 effect. In these they seemed to put their chief dependence, 

 fastening them by a long strap to their wrists, lest they should 

 be wrenched from them. The principal people seldom stirred 

 out without one of them sticking in their girdle, generally made 

 of bone (of whales as they told us) or of coarse, black, and very 

 hard jasper, insomuch that we were almost led to conclude 

 that in peace as well as war they wore them as a warlike 

 ornament, in the same manner as we Europeans wear swords. 

 The darts are about eight feet long, made of wood, bearded 

 and sharpened, but intended chiefly for the defence of their 

 forts, when they have the advantage of throwing them down 

 from a height upon their enemy. They often brought them 

 out in their boats when they meant to attack us, but so little 

 were they able to make use of them against us, who were by 

 reason of the height of the ship above them, that they never 

 but once attempted it ; and then the dart, though thrown 

 with the utmost strength of the man who held it, barely fell 

 on board. Sometimes I have seen them pointed with the 

 stings of sting-rays, but very seldom ; why they do not oftener 

 use them I do not know. Nothing is more terrible to a 

 European than the sharp-jagged beards of those bones ; but 

 I believe that they seldom cause death, though the wounds 

 made by them must be most troublesome and painful. 

 Stones, however, they use much more dexterously, though 

 ignorant of the use of slings. They throw by hand a con- 

 siderable distance ; when they have pelted us with them on 

 board the ship, I have seen our people attempt to throw 

 them back, and not be able to reach the canoes, although they 

 had so manifest an advantage in the height of their situation. 



