who had with them a canoe of a
construction very different from any that they had seen in the strait
before: This vessel consisted of planks sewed together, but all the
others were nothing more than the bark of large trees, tied together at
the ends, and kept open by short pieces of wood, which were thrust in
transversely between the two sides, like the boats which children make
of a bean-shell. The people, he said, were the nearest to brutes in
their manner and appearance of any he had seen: They were, like some
which we had met with before, quite naked, notwithstanding the severity
of the weather, except part of a seal-skin which was thrown over their
shoulders; and they eat their food, which was such as no other animal
but a hog would touch, without any dressing: They had with them a large
piece of whale blubber, which stunk intolerably, and one of them tore it
to pieces with his teeth, and gave it about to the rest, who devoured it
with the voracity of a wild beast. They did not, however, look upon what
they saw in the possession of our people with indifference; for while
one of them was asleep, they cut off the hinder part of his jacket with
a sharp flint which they use as a knife.

About eight o'clock, we made sail, and found little or no current. At
noon, Cape Upright bore W.S.W. distant three leagues; and at six in the
evening, we anchored in the bay, on the southern shore, which lies about
a league to the eastward of the cape, and had fifteen fathom water.

While we were lying here, and taking in wood and water, seven or eight
Indians in a canoe came round the western point of the bay, and having
landed opposite to the ship, made a fire. We invited them to come on
board by all the signs we could devise, but without success; I therefore
took the jolly-boat, and went on shore to them. I introduced myself by
making them presents of several trifles, with which they seemed to be
much gratified, and we became very intimate in a few minutes: After we
had spent some time together, I sent away my people, in the boat, for
some bread, and remained on shore with them alone. When the boat
returned with the bread, I divided it among them, and I remarked with
equal pleasure and surprise, that if a bit of the biscuit happened to
fall, not one of them offered to touch it till I gave my consent. In the
mean time some of my people were cutting a little grass for two or three
sheep which I had still left on board, and at length t