EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 189 



of adlivity in the water, than were performed by the ne- CHAP, 

 groes, who fought a Jham battle, by phinging or rather X^^^* 

 tumbling Hke porpoifes, when they ftruck each other 

 with their legs, as they never ufed their hands ; while 

 the Indians, who were of the Arrowonka nation, fwam 

 and dived like amphibious animals. 



Being fufficiently refrefhed, we fat down upon the 

 beach, near the twenty-one gun battery, where I had an 

 opportunity of examining the features and figure of one 

 of their young females, as fhe approached us, like Venus 

 rifing out of the fea. Thefe people being very different 

 from all the other Indian nations that I have already de- 

 fcribed, I fhall embrace the opportunity of fulfilling my 

 promife, and giving a particular account of them. — In 

 the firft place, the fi^in of the young woman who was 

 now emergipg clean from the river, and divefted of ar- 

 notta-paint, appeared much fairer than the copper-co- 

 lour of the other Indians ; neither were her limbs de- 

 formed by thofe ftrait-laced bracelets or cotton-bands fo 

 much in ufe with the reft ; nor did her hair hang down, 

 but was neatly plaited clofe round the crown of her head, 

 and faftened in the centre with a broad filver plate *. 

 Her only drefs confifted, both during the time flie bathed 

 and after, of a fmall fquare apron made of beads, as I 

 have mentioned before : in every other refpe6t fhe was 

 perfe6tly naked : nor could a finer figure be imagined — = 



* This, at other times, they fupply by a fliell, a fiih-ibone, or the tooth of » 

 tiger, &c.. 



eredt. 



