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
We stood on with an easy sail all night, with soundings from twenty-two
fathom to twelve, and about seven o’clock in the morning we came to an
anchor in thirteen fathom, in Port-royal Bay, called by the natives
_Matavai_. We were immediately surrounded by the natives in their
canoes, who gave us cocoa-nuts, fruit resembling apples, bread-fruit,
and some small fishes, in exchange for beads and other trifles. They had
with them a pig, which they would not part with for any thing but a
hatchet, and therefore we refused to purchase it; because if we gave
them a hatchet for a pig now, we knew they would never afterwards sell
one for less, and we could not afford to buy as many as it was probable
we should want at that price. The bread-fruit grows on a tree that is
about the size of a middling oak: its leaves are frequently a foot and a
half long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those of the
fig-tree, which they resemble in consistence and colour, and in the
exuding of a white milky juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the
size and shape of a child’s head, and the surface is reticulated, not
much unlike a truffle: it is covered with a thin skin, and has a core
about as big as the handle of a small knife: the eatable part lies
between the skin and the core: it is as white as snow, and somewhat of
the consistence of new bread: it must be roasted before it is eaten,
being first divided into three or four parts: its taste is insipid, with
a slight sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of
wheaten-bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke.
Among others who came off to the ship was an elderly man, whose name, as
we learnt afterwards, was OWHAW and who was immediately known to Mr.
Gore, and several others who had been here with Captain Wallis. As I was
informed that he had been very useful to them, I took him on board the
ship with some others, and was particularly attentive to gratify him, as
I hoped he might also be useful to us.
As our stay here was not likely to be very short, and as it was
necessary that the merchandize which we had brought for traffic with the
natives should not diminish in its value, which it would certainly have
done if every person had been left at liberty to give what he pleased
for such things as he should purchase; at the same time, that confusion
and quarrels must necessarily have arisen from there being no standard
at market, I drew up the following rules, and ordered that they should
be punctually observed:—
_Rules to be observed by every Person in or belonging to His Majesty’s
Bark the Endeavour, for the better establishing a regular and uniform
Trade for Provision, &c. with the Inhabitants of George’s Island._
“I. To endeavour, by every fair means, to cultivate a friendship with
the natives; and to treat them with all imaginable humanity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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