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Each chief appears to be intimately acquainted with the peculiarities of his own "amoco." There is also in the possession of the Church Missionary Society a bust of Shungie, cut in a very hard wood by himself, with a rude iron instrument of his own fabrication, on which the tattooing on his face is exactly copied.
In each of the canoes were two or three chiefs, whose habits were of the best sort of cloth, and covered with dog's skin, so as to make an agreeable appearance: Most of these people were marked with the amoco, like those who had been alongside of us before: Their manner of trading was also equally fraudulent; and the officers neglecting either to punish or fright them, one of the midshipmen, who had been defrauded in his bargain, had recourse for revenge to an expedient which was equally ludicrous and severe: He got a fishing line, and when the man who had cheated him was close under the ship's side in his canoe, he heaved the lead with so good an aim that the hook caught him by the backside; he then pulled the line, and the man holding back, the hook broke in the shank, and the beard was left sticking in the flesh.
With respect to the amoco, every different tribe seemed to have a different custom, for all the men in some canoes seemed to be almost covered with it, and those in others had scarcely a stain, except on the lips, which were black in all of them without a single exception.
An officer belonging to the "Dromedary," who happened to have a coat of arms engraved on his seal, was frequently asked by the New Zealanders if the device was his "amoco." This is certainly a more perfect substitute for a written name than that said to have been anciently in use in some parts of Europe.
The regularity in the direction and separation of the links seems to diminish in proportion as we advance towards the east. The mountains of Encaramada join those of Mato, which give birth to the Rio Asiveru or Cuchivero; those of Chaviripe are prolonged by the granite chain of the Corosal, of Amoco, and of Murcielago, towards the sources of the Erevato and the Ventuari.
Their complexions were browner than those of the people we had seen to the southward, and their bodies and faces were more marked with the black stains which they call amoco: They had a broad spiral on each buttock; and the thighs of many of them were almost entirely black, some narrow lines only being left untouched, so that at first sight they appeared to wear striped breeches.
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