There Is As Great A Variety Of Trees And
Plants Here, As At Any Island We Touched At, Where Our Botanists Had Time
To Examine.
I believe these people live chiefly on the produce of the land,
and that the sea contributes but little to their subsistence.
Whether this
arises from the coast not abounding with fish, or from their being bad
fishermen, I know not; both causes perhaps concur. I never saw any sort of
fishing-tackle amongst them, nor any one out fishing, except on the shoals,
or along the shores of the harbour, where they would watch to strike with a
dart such fish as came within their reach; and in this they were expert.
They seemed much to admire our catching fish with the seine; and, I
believe, were not well pleased with it at last. I doubt not, they have
other methods of catching fish besides striking them.[2]
We understood that the little isle of Immer was chiefly inhabited by
fishermen, and that the canoes we frequently saw pass, to and from that
isle and the east point of the harbour, were fishing canoes. These canoes
were of unequal sizes, some thirty feet long, two broad, and three deep;
and they are composed of several pieces of wood clumsily sewed together
with bandages. The joints are covered on the outside by a thin batten
champered off at the edges, over which the bandages pass. They are
navigated either by paddles or sails. The sail is lateen, extended to a
yard and boom, and hoisted to a short mast.
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