Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

FUFFFERINGS AMONG THE INDIANS. 211
thing to be got for sustenance. The first
thing the Indians did was to take everything
out of their canoes; and after hauling them
ashore, they made their wigwams. We pass¬
ed this night, as generally we had done, un¬
der a tree ; but what we suffered at this time
is not easily to be expressed. I had been
three days at the oar without any kind of
nourishment, but the wretched root I men¬
tioned before. I had no shirt, as mine was
rotted off by bits, and we were devoured by
vermin. All my clothes consisted of an old
short grieko, which is something like a bear¬
skin, with a piece of a waistcoat under it,
which once had been of red cloth, both which
I had on when I was cast away; I had a
ragged pair of trowsers, without either shoe
or storking. The first thing the Indians did
in the morning was to take their canoes to
pieces: and here, for the information of the
reader, it will be necessary to describe the
structure of these boats, which are extremely
well calculated for the use of these Indians,
as they are frequently obliged to carry them
over land a long way together, through thick
woods, to avoid doubling capes and headlands
in seas where no open boat could live. They