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 old-fashioned 
chopping-knife, others like this, Ee or is ; always how- 
ever, having sharp edges, 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. 
