Volume 181301

A general collection of voyages and travels, including the most interesting records of navigators and travellers, from the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, to the travels of Lord Valentia / [William Fordyce Mavor].

  • William Fordyce Mavor
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general collection of voyages and travels, including the most interesting records of navigators and travellers, from the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, to the travels of Lord Valentia / [William Fordyce Mavor]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    gyro $30 L& ROY'S NARRATIVE OF for those skins laid aside for the purpose o* making themselves pelisses, they were satisfied withletting them soften for one day o only in manufacturing them, pro- asin afterwards in the same manner as I have be- fore described, excepting their not tearing off the hair. Thus they saw themselves at once possessed of al] the materials necessary for clothing themselves from top to toe, Yet, however, one great difficulty remained to be overcome.’ ‘hey had neither awl to make their shoes abd boots with, nor needle to sew their clothing ; but they had iron, as we have noticed, and found out means very soon of panei this need: in short, they forg~ ed as useful an awl and needle as those which are used by workmen in these lines of business. Jt was in the beginning difficult for them to contrive how to make the vegies hole in the needle, though at last it was. amet ie by means of the point of their knife, which for this purpose they sharpened and made proper, after having previously torged a sort-of wire for a needle, and heated it'red-hot. { have had an opportunity of con- vincing myself of the truth of all I have said on this | natter: I have attentively examined, through a com- mon, magnifying-glass, the eye of this needle. The mode they used of rounding, polishing, and pointing it, so as to be very sharp, was by rabbing ‘t on stones, of suhre there -w-s an abundance: “the only fault it had-was, that the eye, not being so nniform and even as it howl Id be, was liable to cut the nerves with which it was threaded: but this was a failing“ they could not reniedy. ; Ajthongh unfurnished with sheers, for the purpose of cutting the hides, yet were they not without a sub- stitute perfectly sufficient for this use, in the knife which they had so well sharpened. ‘Thus, although they should not have been tailors or shoemakers, it appears that these unfortunate’ men must have become such in this incomprehensible state of embarrassment ; since they manufactured hose, shirts, waistcoats,
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