140 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
The women of this tribe are beautiful, modest, and ex¬ 
tremely well conducted. The children have fine complexions 
and are very amiable. They live in large huts, dispersed in 
rancherias, and have many convenient utensils made of rushes. 
Their island abounds in a small root resembling the common 
potato, which is much prized as an article of food. On this 
island is a very large level enclosure, with an altar in the 
centre surrounded by a circular wall or partition of various 
colored feathers. Within this circle is a figure painted 
with a great variety of hues, and resembling the image by 
which the Indians of Mexico typify the devil. In its hands 
are the figures of the Sun and Moon. As the soldiers ap¬ 
proach this place they discover two very large crows within 
the enclosure, which rise on their coming up and alight on 
some rocks in the vicinity. Before the guide can remonstrate, 
their pieces are levelled and both birds fall. This act calls 
forth the bitterest lamentations from the Indian, who evidently 
regards them as sacred to his deity. Santa Catarina has se¬ 
veral fine harbors. It abounds in partridges, quails, rabbits, 
hare and deer. The people are very numerous, and exhibit 
much ingenuity in pilfering from their visitors. 
On the twenty-first of December the squadron leaves Santa 
Catarina to explore other islands which extend in a line nearly 
one hundred leagues up the coast. They are found to be inhab¬ 
ited by shrewd, active people, who trade much among them¬ 
selves and with their neighbors on the continent. Between 
a portion of them and the main land is a channel called the 
Canal de Santa Barbara. After exploring them, the fleet 
puts back to the continent, near the southern mouth of this 
channel. Before they reach the shore, however, four men 
come up to the Capitana, and row three times round her 
with the most astonishing swiftness, all the while chanting a 
kind of wild measure, similar to what the Indians of Mexico 
call almatote. By this the Spaniards understand that they 
have the Indian king or cacique on board. And so it proves; 
for when the ceremony is over, his majesty steps on board the 
