322 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND CH. xm 



mainland as were islands on which we saw evident marks 

 of their having been, such as decayed houses, fires, the before- 

 mentioned turtle bones, etc. Maybe, at this more moderate 

 time, they make and use such canoes, and when the bluster- 

 ing season comes on, may convert the bark of which they 

 were made to the purposes of covering houses, water- 

 buckets, etc., well knowing that when the next season 

 returns they will not want for a supply of bark to rebuild 

 their vessels. Another reason we have to imagine that such 

 a moderate season exists, and that the winds are [not] then 

 upon the eastern board as we found them is, that whatever 

 Indian houses or sleeping places we saw on these islands were 

 built upon the summit of small hills, if there were any, or if 

 not, in places where no bushes or wood could intercept the 

 course of the wind, and their shelter was always turned to the 

 eastward. On the main, again, their houses were universally 

 built in valleys or under the shelter of trees which might 

 defend them from the very winds, which in the islands they 

 exposed themselves to. 



Of their language I can say very little ; our acquaint- 

 ance with them was of so short a duration that none of 

 us attempted to use a single word of it to them, conse- 

 quently words could be learned in no other manner than by 

 signs, inquiring of them what in their language signified 

 such a thing, a method obnoxious as leading to many mis- 

 takes. For instance, a man holds in his hand a stone and 

 asks the name of it, the Indian may return him for answer 

 either the real name of a stone, or one of the properties of 

 it, as hardness, roughness, smoothness, etc., or one of its 

 uses, or the name peculiar to some particular species of 

 stone, which name the inquirer immediately sets down as 

 that of a stone. To avoid, however, as much as possible 

 this inconvenience, myself and two or three others got 

 from them as many .words as we could, and having noted 

 down those which we thought from circumstances we were 

 not mistaken in, we compared our lists ; those in which all 

 agreed, or rather were contradicted by none, we thought 

 ourselves morally certain not to be mistaken in. They very 



