n their fishing excursions, the
natives are generally very successful, and those who pursue this mode
of obtaining their livelihood, are compelled to adhere to it, and
allowed to have nothing to do with cultivating the land. They
exchange their fish for yams, and thus the wants of the fishermen and
the cultivators are both supplied.

On the first visit of ships to this island, very considerable
aversion was shown by the natives to any of their people attempting
to go to their huts, or even to their endeavouring to penetrate into
the woods, although only a short distance from the shore, from a fear
perhaps of their plantations being plundered. Their huts, which are
of the rudest construction imaginable, may be distinctly seen amongst
the trees in small groups, surrounding a clear space of ground, in
which they cultivate the yam, and are formed of a few stakes driven
firmly into the ground, thatched over with the palm leaf, the sides
being completed with a sort of wicker work. They are about ten or
twelve feet long, and half that in breadth, and not more than four or
five feet in height. Their only furniture consists of some long flat
pieces of wood, raised a few inches from the ground, and slightly
hollowed out, to answer the purpose of sleeping in.

Numerous instances have occurred, of the thieving propensities of the
natives, and it required, at first, a considerable degree of
vigilance to prevent them from being successful, but it is due to the
chiefs to say, that since the establishment of Clarence, they have
invariably taken an active part in putting a stop to it. Whatever may
have been their habits previously to the formation of the settlement,
they seem to be little improved by their intercourse with the
settlers. Their principal chief has received the formidable
appellation of cut-throat from Captain Owen, a name, by which he will
be known as long as he lives. This fellow is a most determined
savage, and seems to have lost none of his natural propensities by
communicating with the settlers. He has received innumerable presents
from the English, of clothes, and a variety of things, which are all
thrown away upon him, and he goes about as usual, wearing his little
hat, with feathers stuck in it, and the long grass about his waist,
disdaining such useless coverings as he imagines them. This is not to
be wondered at, for accustomed as he has been all his life time, to
the unrestrained freedom of his whole person, i