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Miss, who probably had received her instructions, wanted, as a preliminary article, a spike-nail or a shirt, neither of which I had to give her, and soon made them sensible of my poverty. I thought, by that means, to have come off with flying colours; but I was mistaken; for they gave me to understand I might retire with her on credit.
We were fortunate in our blacksmith, for he also made some good pikes or spearheads, which he mounted on long poles, to be carried in the boats. May 31. The same natives with an old man and a very wild-looking young one, covered with red ochre, total gules, came to their tree, and I went to them. I gave the old man a spike-nail sharpened, but he asked for a tomahawk, and I then gave him one.
"Yes," I said; "Pomp found him asleep, and fetched me. Morgan, I want it on that stump." "No, no, sir," said Morgan. "I'll get the hammer and a big spike-nail, and drive it through the back of the skin into that big tree at the bottom." "Capital!" I cried. "But it will be a nuisance," said my father. "Oh no, sir. It's full in the hot sun, and the flies will clean it.
We happened to have for their entertainment a kind of pie or pudding made of plantains, and some sort of greens which we had got from one of the natives. On this and on yams they made a hearty dinner; for, as to the salt beef and pork, they would hardly taste them. In the afternoon, having made each of them a present of a hatchet, a spike-nail, and some medals, I conducted them ashore.
Turning it upward as he spoke, it was his delight to tell of cruises against the French, and battles with his own shipmates, when he and an antagonist used to be seated astride of a sailor's chest, each fastened down by a spike-nail through his trousers, and there to fight it out.
The woman we supposed was a mark of confidence, and the pig was a present; we received both with proper acknowledgments, and complimented each of the ladies with a spike-nail and some beads, much to their satisfaction.
To the old man I gave a tomahawk, and to two others a spike-nail each; I presented also a tin jug to one, who took a great fancy to it. These natives retained all their front teeth and had no scarifications on their bodies, two most unfashionable peculiarities among the aborigines, and in which these differed from most others.
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