The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.Cook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
When the ship was secured, I went on shore to look for a proper place to
get ballast and water, both which I found in a very convenient
situation.
This day Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander spent on shore, very much to their
satisfaction: every body seemed to fear and respect them, placing in
them at the same time the utmost confidence, behaving as if conscious
that they possessed the power of doing them mischief, without any
propensity to make use of it. Men, women, and children, crowded round
them, and followed them wherever they went; but none of them were guilty
of the least incivility: on the contrary, whenever there happened to be
dirt or water in the way, the men vied with each other to carry them
over on their backs. They were conducted to the houses of the principal
people, and were received in a manner altogether new: the people, who
followed them while they were in their way, rushed forward as soon as
they came to a house, and went hastily in before them, leaving however a
lane sufficiently wide for them to pass. When they entered, they found
those who had preceded them ranged on each side of a long matt, which
was spread upon the ground, and at the farther end of which sat the
family: in the first house they entered, they found some very young
women or children, dressed with the utmost neatness, who kept their
station, expecting the strangers to come up to them and make them
presents, which they did with the greatest pleasure; for prettier
children, or better dressed, they had never seen. One of them was a girl
about six years old; her gown or upper garment was red; a large quantity
of platted hair was wound round her head, the ornament to which they
give the name of Tamou, and which they value more than any thing they
possess. She sat at the upper end of a matt thirty feet long, upon which
none of the spectators presumed to set a foot, notwithstanding the
crowd; and she leaned upon the arm of a well-looking woman about thirty,
who was probably her nurse. Our gentlemen walked up to her, and as soon
as they approached, she stretched out her hand to receive the beads
which they offered her, and no princess in Europe could have done it
with a better grace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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