322 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND | cu. XIII 
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 
