other respects, the stay of our people here was attended with considerable enjoyment. They had not only plenty of wood and water for the ship, but good supplies of celery; while the shags, ducks, and especially geese, which they shot, furnished some welcome, and even rich repasts. On the 24th, they shot no less than 76 geese, so that the whole crew had an excellent Christmas dinner, of roast and boiled goose, goose pie, &c; and having still some Madeira wine left, the only part of their stores that improved by keeping, they kept Christmas as cheerfully as most of their friends in England. The Captain gratefully observes, "Had not Providence thus singularly provided for us, our Christmas cheer must have been salt beef and pork."
In their excursions, they had observed huts, and other tokens that the place was inhabited; and, on the 24th, a number of natives, in nine canoes, came alongside the ship, and some of them came on board. By their familiarity, as well as by the knives in their possession, it appeared that they were not unacquainted with Europeans. They were of the same wretched nation, formerly seen in Success Bay, on the east side of this country. Bougainville named them Pecheras; a word which they had frequently in their mouth. They are described as a little, ugly, half-starved, beardless race. Most of the men had no clothing but a seal skin, scarcely sufficient to cover their shoulders; although, by using more seal skins, and lining them with skins of birds, they might, with a little industry, clothe themselves decently and comfortably. They are, however, inured to the cold from their birth; for the children had no covering what-
