she got her beads and bracelets, and enquired by all the signs I could
devise, but found it impossible to make myself understood. One of the
men shewed me the bowl of a tobacco-pipe, which was made of a red earth,
but I soon found that they had no tobacco among them; and this person
made me understand that he wanted some: Upon this I beckoned to my
people, who remained upon the beach, drawn up as I had left them, and,
three or four of them ran forward, imagining that I wanted them. The
Indians, who, as I had observed, kept their eyes almost continually upon
them, no sooner saw some of them advance, than they all rose up with a
great clamour, and were leaving the place, as I supposed to get their
arms, which were probably left at a little distance: To prevent
mischief, therefore, and put an end to the alarm, which had thus
accidentally been spread among them, I ran to meet the people who were,
in consequence of my signal, coming from the beach, and as soon as I was
within hearing I hallooed to them, and told them that I would have only
one come up with all the tobacco that he could collect from the rest. As
soon as the Indians saw this, they recovered from their surprise, and
every one returned to his station, except a very old man, who came up to
me, and sung a long song, which I much regretted my not being able to
understand: Before the song was well finished, Mr Cumming came up with
the tobacco, and I could not but smile at the astonishment which I saw
expressed in his countenance, upon perceiving himself, though six feet
two inches high, become at once a pigmy among giants; for these people
may indeed more properly be called giants than tall men. Of the few
among us who are full six feet high, scarcely any are broad and muscular
in proportion to their stature, but look rather like men of the common
bulk, run up accidentally to an unusual height; and a man who should
measure only six feet two inches, and equally exceed a stout well-set
man of the common stature in breadth and muscle, would strike us rather
as being of a gigantic race, than as an individual accidentally