198 



TEINIDAD NATIVES. 



seen on the water, and the size of their canoes was quite 

 beyond anything hitherto noticed : they were near thirty feet in 

 length and seven feet broad, with proportionate depth, being 

 made of planks sewn together with strips of twisted bark and 

 rushes : the bow and stern were flat, and nearly upright. Six 

 round pieces of wood formed the thwarts, which were fastened 

 to the gunwale by ropes of twisted rushes ; and there were 

 six short oars on each side. These oars were about seven feet 

 long, the blade being a flat piece of wood about sixteen inches 

 in length, fastened to the handle by rush rope passed through 

 two holes in the blade. Of such burthen were these boats 

 (rather than canoes), that two men standing on one gunwale 

 did not bring it down to the water. Each was steered by an 

 old woman, who sat silently abaft with a paddle. All the 

 party were quite naked excepting the old women. 



" From one of the old women a small bag was obtained, 

 in exchange for a shirt and some woollen stuff*, which proved to 

 contain white dust, feathers, parrots' heads, hawks' feet, white 

 earth, and red ochre. One of the men had an old hatchet, and 

 made signs that he wanted to sharpen it at our grindstone : of 

 course we complied with his request, and allowed a man and a 

 young lad to come on board for that purpose. The lad turned 

 the stone, while the man held the axe ; and extremely well it 

 was sharpened. The spears and slings were similar to those 

 seen in other places. 



Although these natives seemed to be remarkably well dis- 

 posed, it was not quite pleasant to see thirty of them looking 

 over the schooner's bulwark, while our boats were away and 

 only five or six men left on board : however, they made no 

 attempt to do any thing improper, and before sunset left us 

 peaceably, striking up a song as they paddled away." 



Mr. Bynoe remarked, that in the neighbourhood of Easter 

 Bay (Obstruction Soimd), the country had much the appear- 

 ance of English park scenery ; large clumps of trees growing 

 straight and tall, with intervening spaces of clear ground co- 

 vered with long grass. In this place he found great numbers 

 of wigwams and deserted canoes. Some of the former were of 



