202 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1819. under which the wearer of a shirt laboured to get 
June 20 . it off. 
Their canoes were not more than five feet long, 
and generally too small for two people; two 
small strips of bark, five or six inches square, 
serves the double purpose of paddling and for bal- 
ing the water out, which they are constantly obliged 
to do to prevent their canoe from sinking ; in shoal 
water the paddles are superseded by a pole, by 
which this fragile bark is propelled. We endea- 
voured to persuade them to bring off some spears 
to barter, for they had no weapon of any descrip- 
tion with them, but they evidently would not un- 
derstand our meaning. In the evening our gen- 
tlemen proceeded to return these visits, at the 
spot which was pointed out by our morning 
guests : on landing they were met by the natives 
and conducted to their huts, where they saw the 
whole of the male part of this tribe, which con- 
sisted of fifteen, of whom two were old and de- 
crepit, and one of these was reduced to a perfect 
skeleton by ulcerated sores on his legs, that 
had eaten away the flesh, and left large portions 
of the bone bare ; and this miserable object was 
wasting away without any application or covering 
to his sores. 
No teeth were deficient in their jaws ; all had 
the septum-narium perforated, but without wear- 
ing any appendage in it. The only ornament 
