APPENDIX. 1S7 



leading man of his tribe, •which authority was confirmed to him by 

 the Spaniards ; for he carried the usual badge and mark of distinc- 

 tion by which the Spaniards and their dependents hold their military 

 and civil employments, which is a stick with a silver head." 



" This report of our shipwreck (as we supposed) having reached 

 the Chonos by means of the intermediate tribes, v/hich handed it to 

 ■one another, from those Indians who visited us ; this cacique was 

 •either sent to learn the truth of the rumour, or, having first got the 

 intelligence, set out with a view of making some advantage of the 

 wreck," 



" Having understood my necessities, they (the two women) talked 

 together some httle time ; after which, getting up, they both went 

 out, taking with them a couple of dogs, which they train to assist 

 them in fishing. After an hour's absence, they came in trembling 

 with cold, and their hair streaming %Yith water, and brought two 

 iish, which, having broiled, they gave me the largest share; and 

 then we all laid down, as before, to rest." 



" After rovnng some time, they (the women) gained such an 

 offing as they required, where the water was about eight or ten 

 fathoms deep, and there lay upon their oars. And now the youngest 

 of the two women, talking a basket in her mouth, jumped overboard, 

 and diving to the bottom, continued imder water an amazing time ; 

 when she had filled the basket with sea-eggs, she came up to the boat- 

 side, and delivering it so filled to the other women in the boat, they 

 took out the contents, and returned it to her. The diver then, after 

 having taken a short time to breathe, went dovra and up again, with 

 the same success ; and so several times for the space of half an hour. 

 It seems as if Providence had endued this people with a kind of 

 amphibious nature, as the sea is the only source from whence almost 

 all their subsistence is derived. This element, too, being here 

 very boisterous, and falling with a most hea\y surf upon a rugged 

 coast, very little, except some seal, is to be got any where but in the 

 quiet bosom of the deep. What occasions this reflection is, the early 

 propensity I had so frequently observed in the children of these 

 savages to this occupation, who, even at the age of three years, 

 might be seen crawling upon their hands and linees among the rocks 



