LOSSOFTHEPEACOCK. 43] 



Besides inculcating good morals and peace, the priests are inducing 

 the Indians to cultivate the soil, and there was an enclosure of some 

 three or four acres, in which potatoes and beans were growing. The 

 Indians were also cultivating large quantities of potatoes, in a soil 

 fertile and capable of producing every thing. Wild flowers were in 

 abundance, and with strawberry-vines covered the whole surface. 

 The fruit of the latter was large and of fine flavour. 



The Sachet tribe are obliged to provide for their defence against 

 the. more northern tribes, by whom they are frequently attacked, for 

 the purpose of carrying them off as slaves. For protection against 

 these attacks they have large enclosures, four hundred feet long, and 

 capable of containing many families, which are constructed of pickets 

 made of thick planks, about thirty feet high. The pickets are firmly 

 fixed into the ground, the spaces between them being only sufficient to 

 point a musket through. The appearance of one of these enclosures is 

 formidable, and they may be termed impregnable to any Indian force ; 

 for, in the opinion of the officers, it would have required artillery to 

 make a breach in them. The interior of the enclosure is divided into 

 lodges, and has all the aspect of a fortress. 



Upon the whole, the tribe inhabiting Penn's Cove are more advanced 

 than any others in civilization. 



The only spring found here was one of a mineral character, forming 

 a deposition on every thing around. 

 On the main, there is much good land. 



Near the harbour of Port Gardner, a fine stream empties itself into 

 Possession Sound, by four mouths. The water was not found to be 

 sufficiently deep in any of these to admit boats at low water, in conse- 

 quence of a bar or flat extending across the mouths. 



Here they were surrounded by many canoes, containing Indians 

 from the various tribes to the southward, whom they had before seen. 

 The dress of the Sachet does not vary much from that of the other 

 tribes, and generally consists of a single blanket, fastened with a 

 wooden pin around the neck and shoulders. Those who are not able 

 to purchase blankets wear leathern hunting-shirts, fringed in part with 

 beads or shells, and very few are seen with leggins. The women orna- 

 ment themselves with small brass bells, or other trinkets. The cartilage 

 of the nose is also perforated, and pieces of polished bone or wood 

 passed through it. Although the dress of these natives would seem to 

 offer some concealment to the body, few are seen that wear it with any 

 kind of decency. Their persons are usually very filthy, and they may 

 be said to be at all times coated with dirt. They are fond of wearing 

 brass rings on their wrists and fingers, and a few are seen to be tattooed 

 vol. iv. 2a 61 



