APPENDIX. 



No. 14. 



Extract from Byron's Narrative of the Loss of the Wager. 



" These people* were of a small stature, very swarthy, having long, 

 black, coarse hair, hanging over their faces. It was evident, from 

 their great surprise, and every part of their behaviour, as well as 

 their not having one thing in their possession which could be derived 

 from white people, that they had never seen such. Their clothing was 

 nothing but a bit of some beast's skin about their waists, and some- 

 thing woven from feathers over the shoulders ; and as they uttered 

 no word of any language we had ever heard, nor had any method of 

 making themselves understood, we presumed they could have had no 

 intercourse with Europeans. These savages, who, upon their de- 

 parture, left us a few muscles, returned in two days, and surprised 

 us by bringing three sheep." . . . . "At this interview we 

 bartered with them for a dog or two, which we roasted and eat." 



In one of my walks, seeing a very large bird of prey upon an 

 eminence, I endeavoured to come upon it unperceived with my gun, 

 by means of the v/oods which lay at the back of that eminence ; but, 

 when I had proceeded so far in the wood as to think I was in a line 

 with it, I heard a growling close by me, which made me think it 

 advisable to retire as soon as possible : the woods were so gloomy I 

 could see nothing ; but, as I retired, this noise followed me close tiU 

 I had got out of them. Some of our men did assure me, that they 

 had seen a very large beast in the woods ; but their description of it 

 was too imperfect to be relied upon."t 



" The first night we put into a good harbour, a few leagues to the 

 southward of Wager Island ; where, finding a large bitch big with 

 puppies, we regaled upon them. In this expedition we had our 

 usual bad weather and breaking seas, which were grown to such a 

 height the third day, that we were obliged, through distress, to push 

 in at the first inlet we saw at hand. This we had no sooner entered 

 than we were presented with a view of a fine bay, in which, having 

 secured the barge, we went ashore, but the weather being very rainy, 

 and finding nothing to subsist upon, we pitched a bell tent, which 

 we had brought with us, in the wood opposite to where the barge 

 lay. As this tent was not large enough to contain us all, I proposed 



* Natives of the Guaianeco Islands. 



t Showing that the puma crosses arms of the sea. — R, F. 



