case, if a gale from the eastward should take them when near the
land, they would have their port under their lee, for it would be
next to an impossibility for a ship to keep off the land with
such a sea as these gales occasion.

In the month of July, our scorbutic patients seemed to be
rather worse; the want of a little fresh food for the sick was
very much felt, and fish at this time were very scarce: such of
the natives as we met seemed to be in a miserable and starving
condition from that scarcity. We frequently fell in with families
living in the hollow part of the rocks by the sea-side, where
they eagerly watched every opportunity of moderate weather to
provide shell or other fish for their present subsistence: if a
bird was shot, and thrown to them, they would immediately pluck
off the feathers, put it upon the fire without taking out the
intestines, and eat the whole; sometimes they did not pull off
the feathers, and, if it were a small bird, did not even throw
the bones away.

This season, in which fish is so scarce, subjects these poor
creatures to great distress, at least we were apt to believe so;
they were frequently found gathering a kind of root in the woods,
which they broiled on the fire, then beat it between two stones
until it was quite soft; this they chew until they have extracted
all the nutritive part, and afterwards throw it away. This root
appears to be a species of the orchis, or has much of its
nutritive quality.

Large fires were frequently seen in this season upon some of
the hills, and we had been much at a loss to know for what