296 CAPTAIN CARTWRIGHT'S 



use or value; consequently, all my expectations 

 from it were blasted, and I clearly foresaw inevi- 

 table ruin, waiting my return to England. 



Saturday, September 13, 1783. I had a small 

 matter of trade to-day with the Indians, and ad- 

 mired exceedingly the honest principle of one of 

 them, who absolutely refused to part with a 

 bundle of whalebone, which he had brought 

 to pay a debt with; notwithstanding I assured 

 him that the person to whom he owed it was 

 not in this country, nor would ever return to it 

 again. 



Tuesday, Septemter 23, 1783. After breakfast 

 I took two men with me in a skiff, and went to the 

 mouth of South-east River: where we landed and 

 walked into the countrv, on the south side of it, 

 as far as the east end of the large black hill, called 

 Thickhead. The distance which we walked to- 

 day, is about seven miles; we found the woods 

 but thin in general; the walking good and plenty 

 of feed for deer at this time of the vear, and for 

 black-bears in the summer. The food, which the 

 black-bears meet with here, is ants and flies: the 

 woods have been burnt several years ago, and 

 great numbers of trees lie on the ground; which 

 being now perfectly rotten, are filled with plenty 

 of ants and other insects. The bears break these 

 trees to pieces with their paws, and lick out the 

 insects with their tongues. This is no supposi- 

 tion, but a real fact; for I have killed a bear with 

 her paunch almost full of such insects, and with 

 nothing else in her. We saw in the course of the 



