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miles above our river, and this side of the South Sea, brought us a
good deal of silver in exchange for our goods. The principal articles
we could get from our neighbouring Indians, were turtle oil, and
shells, little silk grass, and some provisions; but they would not
work at any thing for us, except fishing; and a few times they
assisted to cut some trees down, in order to build us houses; which
they did exactly like the Africans, by the joint labour of men, women,
and children. I do not recollect any of them to have had more than two
wives. These always accompanied their husbands when they came to our
dwelling; and then they generally carried whatever they brought to us,
and always squatted down behind their husbands. Whenever we gave them
any thing to eat, the men and their wives ate it separate. I never
saw the least sign of incontinence amongst them. The women are
ornamented with beads, and fond of painting themselves; the men also
paint, even to excess, both their faces and shirts: their favourite
colour is red. The women generally cultivate the ground, and the men
are all fishermen and canoe makers. Upon the whole, I never met any
nation that were so simple in their manners as these people, or had so
little ornament in their houses. Neither had they, as I ever could
learn, one word expressive of an oath. The worst word I ever heard
amongst them when they were quarreling, was one that they had got from
the English, which was, 'you rascal.' I never saw any mode of worship
among them; but in this they were not worse than their European
brethren or neighbours: for I am sorry to say that there was not one
white person in our dwelling, nor any where else that I saw in
different places I was at on the shore, that was better or more pious
than those unenlightened Indians; but they either worked or slept on
Sundays: and, to my sorrow, working was too much Sunday's employment
with ourselves; so much so, that in some length of time we really did
not know one day from another. This mode of living laid the foundation
of my decamping at last. The natives are well made and warlike; and
they particularly boast of having never been conquered by the
Spaniards. They are great drinkers of strong liquors when they can get
them. We used to distil rum from pine apples, which were very
plentiful here; and then we could not get them away from our place.
Yet they seemed to be singular, in point of honesty, above any other
nation I was ever amongst. The country being hot, we lived under an
open shed, where we had all kinds of goods, without a door or a lock
to any one article; yet we slept in safety, and never lost any thing,
or were disturbed. This surprised us a good deal; and the Doctor,
myself, and others, used to say, if we were to lie in that manner in
Europe we should have our throats cut the first night. The Indian
governor goes once in a certain time all about the province or
district, and has a number of men with him as attendants and
assistants. He settles all the differences among the people, like the
judge here, and is treated with very great respect. He took care to
give us timely notice before he came to our habitation, by sending his
stick as a token, for rum, sugar, and gunpowder, which we did not
refuse sending; and at the same time we made the utmost preparation to
receive his honour and his train. When he came with his tribe, and all
our neighbouring chieftains, we expected to find him a grave reverend
judge, solid and sagacious; but instead of that, before he and his
gang came in sight, we heard them very clamorous; and they even had
plundered some of our good neighbouring Indians, having intoxicated
themselves with our liquor. When they arrived we did not know what to
make of our new guests, and would gladly have dispensed with the
honour of their company. However, having no alternative, we feasted
them plentifully all the day till the evening; when the governor,
getting quite drunk, grew very unruly, and struck one of our most
friendly chiefs, who was our nearest neighbour, and also took his
gold-laced hat from him. At this a great commotion taken place; and
the Doctor interfered to make peace, as we could all understand one
another, but to no purpose; and at last they became so outrageous that
the Doctor, fearing he might get into trouble, left the house, and
made the best of his way to the nearest wood, leaving me to do as well
as I could among them. I was so enraged with the Governor, that I
could have wished to have seen him tied fast to a tree and flogged for
his behaviour; but I had not people enough to cope with his party. I
therefore thought of a stratagem to appease the riot. Recollecting a
passage I had read in the life of Columbus, when he was amongst the
Indians in Mexico or Peru, where, on some occasion, he frightened
them, by telling them of certain events in the heavens, I had recourse
to the same expedient; and it succeeded beyond my most sanguine
expectations. When I had formed my determination, I went in the midst
of them; and, taking hold of the Governor, I pointed up to the
heavens. I menaced him and the rest: I told them God lived there, and
that he was angry with them, and they must not quarrel so; that they
were all brothers, and if they did not leave off, and go away quietly,
I would take the book (pointing to the Bible), read, and _tell_ God to
make them dead. This was something like magic. The clamour immediately
ceased, and I gave them some rum and a few other things; after which
they went away peaceably; and the Governor afterwards gave our
neighbour, who was called Captain Plasmyah, his hat again. When the
Doctor returned, he was exceedingly glad at my success in thus getting
rid of our troublesome guests. The Musquito people within our
vicinity, out of respect to the Doctor, myself and his people, made
entertainments of the grand kind, called in their tongue _tourrie_ or
_dryckbot_. The English of this expression is, a feast of drinking
about, of which it seems a corruption of language. The drink consisted
of pine apples roasted, and casades chewed or beaten in mortars;
which, after lying some time, ferments, and becomes so strong as to
intoxicate, when drank in any quantity. We had timely notice given to
us of the entertainment. A white family, within five miles of us, told
us how the drink was made, and I and two others went before the time
to the village, where the mirth was appointed to be held; and there we
saw the whole art of making the drink, and also the kind of animals
that were to be eaten there. I cannot say the sight of either the
drink or the meat were enticing to me. They had some thousands of pine
apples roasting, which they squeezed, dirt and all, into a canoe they
had there for the purpose. The casade drink was in beef barrels and
other vessels, and looked exactly like hog-wash. Men, women, and
children, were thus employed in roasting the pine apples, and
squeezing them with their hands. For food they had many land t

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