201 
to have been turned against our fellow-creatures, that sometimes he engages the bear in 
close combat, and rips open its belly when the furious animal is ready to stifle him in its 
paws. It is not known how long this dagger, which, originally, must have been of hard 
wood, has been made of a metal the use of which man has not limited to his wants and 
conveniences, but which, in his hands, is become, for his species, the instrument of destruc- 
tion. Their pikes, which, no doubt, were, at first, tipped with a hard stone, tapering to 
a point, or with a fish-bone, are at this day armed with an iron head of European manufac- 
ture.” (P. 342.) 
“One of the Chiefs who came to trade with us,” says the Editor of Dixon’s Journal, 
“happening one day to cast his eyes on a piece of Sandwich Island cloth, which hung up 
in the shrouds to dry, became very importunate to have it given him. The man to whom 
the cloth belonged,” continues he, “parted with it very willingly, and the Indian was 
perfectly overjoyed with his present. After selling what furs he had brought, with great 
dispatch, he immediately left us, and paddled on rfiore, without favouring us with a part- 
ing song, as is generally the custom. Soon after day-light the next morning, our friend 
appeared alongside dre&sed in a coat made of the Sandwich Island cloth given him the day 
before, and cut exactly in the form of their skin coats, which greatly resendble a wagoner’s 
frock, except the collar and wristbands. The Indian was more proud of his newly-acquired 
dress than ever a London beau was of a birthday suit; and we were greatly pleased with 
this proof of these people’s ingenuity and dispatch; the coat fitted exceedingly well; the 
seams were sewed with all the strength the cloth would admit of, and with a degree of 
neatness equal to that of an English mantua-maker.” (Dixon’s Voyage, p. 189.) (P. 345.) 
“The taste of ornament prevails in all the works of their hands; their canoes, their 
chests, and different little articles of furniture in use among them, are covered with figures 
which might be taken for a species of hierogljqihics: fishes and other animals, heads of 
men, and various whimsical designs, are mingl^ and confounded in order to compose a 
subject. It, undoubtedly, will not be expected that these figures should be perfectly 
regular, and the proportions in them exactly observed; for here, every man is a painter 
and sculptor; yet they are not deficient in a sort of elegance and perfection. But these 
paintings, these carvings, such as they are, are seen on all their furniture. Is this general 
taste simply produced and kept alive by the want of occupying the leisure of a long winter, 
if, however, winter leaves them leisure? Or rather does not its principle arise from the 
ancient state of their society, which is lost to us in the obscurity of their origin?” (Pp. 
345-346.) 
“Although the natives of Tchinkitanay have long been in possession of European 
hatches, they do not yet make use of this instrument for felling the tree which they intend 
for the construction of a canoe.” (P. 348.) 
“The Editor of Dixon’s Journal reports that 'Mr. Turner, one of Captain Dixon’s 
oflScers, while he was making an excursion in the boat on the west coast of the bay, about 
four miles to the northward of their first anchoring-birth, saw a large cave, formed by 
nature in the side of a mountain; curiosity prompted him to go on shore, in order to examine 
it, as there appeared something, which at a distance, looked bright and sparkling. On 
getting into the cave, he found the object which attracted his attention to be a square box, 
with a human head in it: the box was very beautifully ornamented with small shells, 
polished and shining, composing various design^ and seemed to have been left there very 
recently, being the only one in the place.’ Captain Dixon, who had discovered Port 
Mulgrave, situated two degrees and a half to the northward of Tchinkitanay, there met, 
in his excursions, with several of this sort of burying-places.” (Pp. 355-356.) 
“On this small island. Captain Chanal perceived some palisades which appeared 
to be the work of Europeans; and he had the curiosity to examine them closely. He found 
that they form the enclosure of a platform of moderate elevation, resting on one side against 
the rock, and supported at certain distances by stakes, rafters, and other pieces of wood 
forming the frame of a building, well put together and well contrived: he ascended it by 
a stabcase made out of the trunk of a tree. On examination, he judged this monument, 
with everything that belongs to it, to be the product of the arts of the west part of North 
America: the wood bore the impression of time and age; and this evidence against which no 
objection can be made, did not allow it to be supposed that the construction was modem, or 
the work of Europeans who might have anchored in the bay. He here remarked several 
boxes without a lid, the use of which the islanders explained: these perform the oflJice of 
a drum from which they draw a sound, by striking with the fist against the outer sides. 
But what particularly attracted the attention of the French, and well deserved to fix it, 
were two pictures each of which, eight or nine feet long, by five high, were composed only 
of two planks put together. On one of these pictures is seen represented, in colours rather 
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