The Poor Wretch, Though Dreadfully Wounded, Made Shift
To Crawl Off, But His Companion Was Carried Away By These Barbarians,
And his fate doubtful, until a soldier, a few days afterwards, picked up
his jacket and hat in a native's
Hut, the latter pierced through by a spear.
We have found that these spears are not made invariably alike, some of them
being barbed like a fish gig, and others simply pointed. In repairing them
they are no less dexterous than in throwing them. A broken one being given
by a gentleman to an Indian, he instantly snatched up an oyster-shell,
and converted it with his teeth into a tool with which he presently fashioned
the spear, and rendered it fit for use: in performing this operation,
the sole of his foot served him as a work-board. Nor are their weapons
of offence confined to the spear only, for they have besides long wooden
swords, shaped like a sabre, capable of inflicting a mortal wound, and clubs
of an immense size. Small targets, made of the bark of trees, are likewise
now and then to be seen among them.
From circumstances which have been observed, we have sometimes been inclined
to believe these people at war with each other. They have more than once
been seen assembled, as if bent on an expedition. An officer one day met
fourteen of them marching along in a regular Indian file through the woods,
each man armed with a spear in his right hand, and a large stone in his left:
at their head appeared a chief, who was distinguished by being painted.
Though in the proportion of five to one of our people they passed peaceably on.
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