property of the
cacique upon his fulfilling his engagements with us; the inducements we now
made use of to prevail upon him to proceed with us in our journey were,
that he should have my fowling-piece, some little matters in the possession
of Captain Cheap, and that we would use our interest to procure him some
small pecuniary reward.

We were now to set off in the canoe, in which I was to assist him in
rowing. Accordingly, putting from this island, we rowed hard all this day
and the next, without any thing to eat but a scrap of seal, a very small
portion of which fell to my share. About two hours after the close of the
day, we put ashore, where we discovered six or seven wigwams. For my part,
my strength was so exhausted with fatigue and hunger, that it would have
been impossible for me to have held out another day at this toilsome work.
As soon as we landed, the Indian conducted Captain Cheap with him into a
wigwam, but I was left to shift for myself.

Thus left, I was for some time at a loss what I had best do, for knowing
that in the variety of dispositions observable among the Indians, the surly
and savage temper is the most prevalent, I had good reason to conclude,
that if I obtruded myself upon them, my reception would be but indifferent.
Necessity, however, put me upon the risk; I accordingly pushed into the
next wigwam upon my hands and knees, for the entrance into these kind of
buildings is too low to admit of any other manner of getting into them. To
give a short description of these temporary houses called wigwams, may not
be improper here, for the satisfaction of those who never saw any,
especially as they differ somewhat from those of North America, which are
more generally known from the numerous accounts of that country.

When the Indians of this part of the world have occasion to stop any where
in their rambles, if it be only for a night or two, the men, who take this
business upon them, while the women are employed in much more laborious
offices, such as diving in the sea for sea-eggs, and searching the rocks
for shell-fish, getting fuel, &c., repair to the woods, and cutting a
sufficient number of tall strait branches, fix them in an irregular kind of
circle of uncertain dimensions; which having done, they bend the
extremities of these branches so as to meet in a centre at top, where they
bind them by a kind of woodbine called supple-jack, which they split by
holding it in their teeth. This frame, or