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
On the 13th, the market being over about ten o’clock, Mr. Banks walked
into the woods with his gun, as he generally did, for the benefit of the
shade in the heat of the day: as he was returning back, he met Tubourai
Tamaide, near his occasional dwelling, and stopping to spend a little
time with him, he suddenly took the gun out of Mr. Banks’s hand, cocked
it, and, holding it up in the air, drew the trigger: fortunately for him
it flashed in the pan: Mr. Banks immediately took it from him, not a
little surprised how he had acquired sufficient knowledge of a gun to
discharge it, and reproved him with great severity for what he had done.
As it was of infinite importance to keep the Indians totally ignorant of
the management of fire-arms, he had taken every opportunity of
intimating that they could never offend him so highly as by even
touching his piece; it was now proper to enforce this prohibition, and
he therefore added threats to his reproof: the Indian bore all
patiently; but the moment Mr. Banks crossed the river, he set off with
all his family and furniture for his house at Eparre. This being quickly
known from the Indians at the fort, and great inconvenience being
apprehended from the displeasure of this man, who upon all occasions had
been particularly useful, Mr. Banks determined to follow him without
delay, and solicit his return: he set out the same evening accompanied
by Mr. Mollineux, and found him sitting in the middle of a large circle
of people, to whom he had probably related what had happened, and his
fears of the consequences; he was himself the very picture of grief and
dejection, and the same passions were strongly marked in the
countenances of all the people that surrounded him. When Mr. Banks and
Mr. Mollineux went into the circle, one of the women expressed her
trouble, as Terapo had done upon another occasion, and struck a shark’s
tooth into her head several times, till it was covered with blood. Mr.
Banks lost no time in putting an end to this universal distress; he
assured the Chief, that every thing which had passed should be
forgotten, that there was not the least animosity remaining on one side,
nor any thing to be feared on the other. The Chief was soon soothed into
confidence and complacency, a double canoe was ordered to be got ready,
they all returned together to the fort before supper, and as a pledge of
perfect reconciliation, both he and his wife slept all night in Mr.
Banks’s tent: their presence, however, was no palladium; for, between
eleven and twelve o’clock, one of the natives attempted to get into the
fort by scaling the walls, with a design, no doubt, to steal whatever he
should happen to find; he was discovered by the sentinel, who happily
did not fire, and he ran away much faster than any of our people could
follow him. The iron, and iron-tools, which were in continual use at the
armourer’s forge, that was set up within the works, were temptations to
theft which none of these people could withstand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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