i 
480 A VOYAGE TO 
1778. and their child; and a fourth perfon who bore the human 
September, anc [ that was all; for he was the moft deformed 
cripple I had ever feen or heard of. The other man was 
almoft blind; and neither he, nor his wife, were fuch good- 
looking people as we had fometimes feen amongft the na¬ 
tives of this coaft. The under-lips of both were bored; and 
they had in their pofleflion fome fuch glafs beads as I had 
met with before amongft their neighbours. But iron was 
their beloved article. For four knives, which we had made 
out of an old iron hoop, I got from them near four hun¬ 
dred pounds weight of fifh, which they had caught on this 
or the preceding day. Some were trout, and the reft were, 
in fize and tafte, fomewhat between a mullet and a herring. 
I gave the child, who was a girl, a few beads; on which 
the mother burft into tears, then the father, then the cripple, 
and, at laft, to complete the concert, the girl herfelf. But 
this mufic continued not long *. Before night, we had got 
the 
* Captain King has communicated the following account of his interview with the 
fame family. “ On the 12th, while I attended the wooding party, a canoe full of na¬ 
tives approached us; and, beckoning them ta land, an elderly man and woman came on 
fhore. I gave the woman a fmall knife, making her underftand, that I would give her a 
much larger one for fome fifh. She made figns to me to follow her. I had proceeded 
with them about a mile, when the man, in eroding a flony beach, fell down, and cut his 
foot very much. This made me flop; upon which the woman pointed to the man’s eyes, 
which, I obferved, were covered with a thick, white film. He afterward kept clofe to 
his wife, who apprized him of the obftacles in his way. The woman had a little child 
on her back, covered with the hood of her jacket: and which I took for a bundle, till I 
heard it cry. At about two miles diftance we came to their open fkin boat, which was 
turned on its fide, the convex part toward the wind, and ferved for their houfe. I was 
now made to perform a fingular operation on the man’s eyes. Firft, I was directed to 
hold my breath; afterward, to breathe on the difeafed eyes; and next, to fpit on them. 
The woman then took both my hands, and prefiing them to his ftomach, held them there 
for fome time, while fhe related fome calamitous hiftory of her family; pointing fome- 
times to her hufband, fometimes to a frightful cripple belonging to the family, and 
fometimes 
