212 Journal of a Voyage through the 



these people, for they carried an old woman by turns on 

 their backs, who was quite blind and infirm, from the very 

 advanced period of her life. 



Our people having joined us and rested themselves, I 

 requested our guides to proceed, when the elder of them 

 told me that he should not go any further, but that these 

 people would send a boy to accompany his brother, and I 

 began to think myself rather fortunate, that we were not 

 deserted by them all. 



About noon we parted, and in two hours we came up 

 with two men and their families : when we first saw them 

 they were sitting down, as if to rest themselves ; but no 

 sooner did they perceive us than they rose up and seized 

 their arms. The boys who were behind us immediately 

 ran forwards and spoke to them, when they laid by their 

 arms, and received us as friends. They had been eating 

 green berries and dried fish. We had, indeed, scarcely 

 joined them, v/hen a woman and a boy came from the 

 river with water, which they very hospitably gave us to 

 drink. The people of this party had a very sickly appear-* 

 ance, which might have been the consequence of disease, 

 or that indolence which is so natural to them, or of both. 

 One of the women had a tattooed line along the chin, of 

 the same length as her mouth. 



The lads now informed me that they would go no fur- 

 ther, but that these men would take their places ; and they 

 parted from their families with as little apparent concern, 

 as if they were entire strangers to each other. One of 

 them was very w T ell understood by my interpreter, and had 

 resided among the natives of the sea coast, whom he had 

 left but a short time. According to his information, we 

 were approaching a river, which was neither large nor 

 long, but whose banks are inhabited ; and that in the bay 

 which the sea forms at the mouth of it, a great wooden 

 canoe, with white people, arrives about the time when the 

 leaves begin to grow : I presume in the early part of May. 



After we parted with the last people, we came to an 

 uneven, hilly, and swampy country, through which our 

 way was impeded by a considerable number of fallen trees. 

 At five in the afternoon we were overtaken by a heavy 

 shower of rain and hail, and being at the same time very 

 much fatigued, we encamped for the night near a small 

 creek. Our course, till we came to the river, was about 

 South- West ten miles, and then West twelve or fourteen. 



