of Saint Jerom's Sound W.N.W. distant three miles. About three quarters
of a mile eastward of Bachelor's River, is a shoal, upon which there is
not more than six feet water when the tide is out: it is distant about
half a mile from the shore, and may be known by the weeds that are upon
it. The tide flows here, at the full and change of the moon, about one
o'clock. Soon after we were at anchor, several Indians came on board us,
and I made them all presents of beads, ribbands, and other trifles, with
which they appeared to be greatly delighted. This visit I returned by
going on shore among them, taking only a few people with me in my jolly
boat, that I might not alarm them by numbers. They received us with
great expressions of kindness, and to make us welcome, they brought us
some berries which they had gathered for that purpose, and which, with a
few muscles, seem to be a principal part, if not the whole of their
subsistence.

[Footnote 29: "They have also javelins. These people seem to be very
poor and perfectly harmless, coming forth to their respective callings,
as soon, as the morning dawns, and as soon as the sun sets retiring to
their different habitations."--"They are very dexterous in striking the
fish with their javelins, though they lie some feet under water. In
these instances they seem to shew the utmost extent of their ingenuity;
for we found them incapable of understanding things the most obvious to
their senses. For instance, on their first coming on board, amongst the
trinkets we presented them were some knives and scissars, and in giving
them these, we tried to make them sensible of their use; but after our
repeated endeavours, by shewing the manner of using them, they continued
as inflexible as at first, and could not learn to distinguish the blades
from the handles."]

At five o'clock in the morning of the 2d, we weighed and towed with the