1769.

November.

Sunday 12.

the

and these are altogether inacceffible; two other
fides are to the land: up one of them, which is
very fteep, lies the avenue from the beach
other is flat and open to the country upon the
hill, which is a narrow ridge: the whole is in-
closed by a pallifade about ten feet high, confift-
ing of ftrong pales bound together with withes.
The weak fide next the land is also defended by
a double ditch, the innermoft of which has a
bank and an additional pallifade; the inner pal-
lifades are upon the bank next the town, but at
fuch a distance from the top of the bank as to
leave room for men to walk and ufe their arms,
between them and the inner ditch: the outer-
moft pallifades are between the two ditches, and
driven obliquely into the ground, fo that their
upper ends incline over the inner ditch: the
depth of this ditch, from the bottom to the top
or crown of the bank, is four and twenty feet.
Clofe within the innermoft pallifade is a ftage,
twenty feet high, forty feet long, and fix broad;
it is supported by ftrong pofts, and is intended
as a ftation for those who defend the place, from
which they may annoy the affailants by darts and
ftones, heaps of which lay ready for use. An-
other ftage of the fame kind commands the steep
avenue from the beach, and stands also within the
pallifade; on this fide of the hill there are some
little outworks and huts, not intended as advanc-

ed pofts, but as the habitations of people who for

want

want of room could not be accommodated within the works, but who were, notwithstanding, defirous of placing themselves under their protection. The palades, as has been observed already, run round the whole brow of the hill, as well towards the fea as towards the land; but the ground within having originally been a mount, they have reduced it not to ons level, but to several, rifing in ftages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of which is inclofed within its feparate pallifade; they communicate with each other by narrow lanes, which might easily be ftopt up, fo that if an enemy fhould force the outward pallifade, he would have others to carry before the place could be wholly reduced, supposing these places to be obftinately defended one after the other. The only entrance is by a narrow paffage, about twelve feet long, communicating with the fleep afcent from the beach: it paffes under one of the fighting ftages, and though we faw nothing like a door or gateway, it may be easily barricaded in a manner that will make the forcing it a very dangerous and difficult undertaking. Upon the whole, this must be confidered as a place of great ftrength, in which a small number of resolute men may defend themselves against all the force which a people with no other arms than those that are in ufe here could bring against it. It seemed to be well furnished for a

1769. November

Sunday 12..

1

November.

1769. fiege with every thing but water; we faw great quantities of fern root, which they eat as bread, Sunday 12. and dried fish piled up in heaps; but we could

not perceive that they had a fresh water nearer
?'y
than a brook, which runs close under the foot of
the hill: whether they have any means of getting
it from this place during a fiege, or whether
they have any method of toring it within the
works in gourds or other veffels, we could not
learn; some resource they certainly have with
respect to this article, an indispensable neceffary
of life, for otherwife the laying up dry provi-
fions could anfwer no purpose. Upon our ex-
preffing a defire to fee their method of attack
and defence, one of the young men mounted a
fighting ftage, which they call Porava, and an-
other went into the ditch: both he that was to
defend the place, and he that was to affault it,
fung the war-fong, and danced with the fame
frightful gefticulations that we had seen used in
more ferious circumftances, to work themselves
up into a degree of that mechanical fury, which,
among all uncivilized nations, is the neceffaty
prelude to a battle; for difpaffionate courage, a
ftrength of mind that can furmount the fenfe of
danger, without a flow of animal fpirits by
which it is extinguished, feems to be the prero-
gative of those who have projects of more laft-
ing importance, and a keener fense of honour
and difgrace, than can be formed or felt by

men

1769.

November.

men who have few pains or pleasures befides those of mere animal life, and scarcely any purpose but to provide for the day that is paffing Sunday 12. over them, to obtain plunder, or revenge an infult: they will march against each other indeed in cool blood, though they find it neceffary to work themselves into paffion before they engage; as among us there have been many inftances of people who have deliberately made themselves drunk, that they might execute a project which they formed when they were sober, but which, while they continued so, they did not dare to undertake.

On the fide of the hill, near this inclosure, we faw about half an acre planted with gourds and fweet potatoes, which was the only cultivation in the bay under the foot of the point upon which this fortification ftands, are two rocks, one just broken off from the main, and the other not perfectly detached from it: they are both small, and feem more proper for the habitations of birds than men; yet there are houses and places of defence upon each of them. And we saw many other works of the fame kind upon fmall iflands, rocks, and ridges of hills, on different parts of the coaft, befides many fortified towns, which appeared to be much fuperior to this.

The perpetual hoftility in which these poor favages, who have made every village a fort, muft

November.

1769. must neceffarily live, will account for there be ing fo little of their land in a state of cultiva Sunday 12. tion; and, as mischiefs very often reciprocally produce each other, it may perhaps appear, that there being so little land in a state of cultivation, will account for their living in perpetual hoftility. But it is very strange, that the fame invention and diligence which have been used in the conftruction of places fo admirably adapted to defence, almost without tools, fhould not, when urged by the fame neceffity, have furnifhed them with a fingle miffile weapon except the lance, which is thrown by hand: they have no con trivance like a bow to discharge a dart, nor any thing like a fling to affift them in throwing a ftone; which is the more furprising, as the invention of flings, and bows and arrows, is much more obvious than of the works which thefe people construct, and both these weapons are found among much ruder nations, and in almoit every other part of the world. Befides the long lance and Patoo-Patoo, which have been mentioned already, they have a staff about five feet long, fometimes pointed, like a Serjeant's halberd, fometimes only tapering to a point at one end, and having the other end broad, and fhap. ed fomewhat like the blade of an oar. They have also another weapon, about a foot fhorter than thefe, pointed at one end, and at the other fhaped like an axe. The points of their long

lances