On this day ...
21 January 1769
Endeavour Voyage Maps
James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia
Transcript of Cook's Journal
Joseph Banks's Journal
Sydney Parkinson's Journal
The Streight of Le Maire and the Inhabitants of Terra del Fuego
Index
Search
Contact us
Their language in general is guttural, and they express some of their words by a sound exactly like that which we make to clear the throat when any thing happens to obstruct it; yet they have words which would be deemed soft in the better languages of Europe. Mr. Banks learnt what he supposes to be their name for beads and water. When they wanted beads, instead of ribbons or other trifles, they said halleca; and when they were taken on shore from the ship, and by signs asked where water might be found, they made the sign of drinking, and pointing as well to the casks as the watering place, cried Oodâ.
We saw no appearance of their having any food but shellfish; for though seals were frequently seen near the shore, they seemed to have no implements for taking them. The shell-fish is collected by the women, whose business it seems to be to attend at low water, with a basket in one hand, a stick, pointed and barbed, in the other, and a satchel at their backs: they loosen the limpets, and other fish that adhere to the rocks, with the stick, and put them into the basket; which, when full, they empty into the satchel.
 |
Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 56 - 57, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/057.html