A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1Cook, James
History
A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1
Cook, James
Antarctica; Oceania -- Discovery and exploration -- Early works to 1800; Voyages around the world -- Early works to 1800
In the afternoon, the watering and trading parties were sent on shore,
though the latter got but little, as most of the natives had retired into
the country. A party of us went to the other, or southern cove of the bay,
where I procured five pigs, and came to the house which, we were told, did
belong to the man we had killed. He must have been a person of some note,
as there were six pigs in and about his house, which we were told belonged
to his son, who fled on our approach. I wanted much to have seen him, to
make him a present, and, by other kind treatment, to convince him and the
others that it was not from any bad design against the nation, that we had
killed his father. It would have been to little purpose if I had left any
thing in the house, as it certainly would have been taken by others;
especially as I could not sufficiently explain to them my meaning. Strict
honesty was seldom observed when the property of our things came to be
disputed. I saw a striking instance of this in the morning, when I was
going ashore. A man in a canoe offered me a small pig for a six-inch spike,
and another man being employed to convey it, I gave him the spike, which he
kept for himself, and instead of it, gave to the man who owned the pig a
sixpenny nail. Words of course arose, and I waited to see how it would end;
but as the man who had possession of the spike seemed resolved to keep it,
I left them before it was decided. In the evening we returned on board with
what refreshments we had collected, and thought we had made a good day's
work.
On the 10th, early in the morning, some people from more distant parts came
in canoes alongside, and sold us some pigs; so that we had now sufficient
to give the crew a fresh meal. They were, in general, so small, that forty
or fifty were hardly sufficient for this purpose. The trade on shore for
fruit was as brisk as ever. After dinner, I made a little expedition in my
boat along the coast to the south-ward, accompanied by some of the
gentlemen: At the different places we touched at, we collected eighteen
pigs; and I believe, might have got more. The people were exceedingly
obliging wherever we landed, and readily brought down whatever we
desired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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