To Cultivation Of The Ground They Are Utter Strangers, And Wholly Depend
For Food On The Few Fruits They Gather; The Roots They Dig Up In The Swamps;
And The Fish They Pick Up Along Shore, Or Contrive To Strike From Their Canoes
With Spears.
Fishing, indeed, seems to engross nearly the whole of their time,
probably from its forming the chief part of a subsistence, which,
observation has convinced us, nothing short of the most painful labour,
and unwearied assiduity, can procure.
When fish are scarce, which frequently
happens, they often watch the moment of our hauling the seine, and have more
than once been known to plunder its contents, in spite of the opposition
of those on the spot to guard it: and this even after having received a part
of what had been caught. The only resource at these times is to shew
a musquet, and if the bare sight is not sufficient, to fire it over
their heads, which has seldom failed of dispersing them hitherto,
but how long the terror which it excites may continue is doubtful.
The canoes in which they fish are as despicable as their huts, being nothing
more than a large piece of bark tied up at both ends with vines.
Their dexterous management of them, added to the swiftness with which
they paddle, and the boldness that leads them several miles in the open sea,
are, nevertheless, highly deserving of admiration. A canoe is seldom seen
without a fire in it, to dress the fish by, as soon as caught:
fire they procure by attrition.
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