The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
One of these men was somewhat above the middle
age, the other three were young; they were in general of the common
stature, but their limbs were remarkably small; their skin was of the
colour of wood-soot, or what would be called a dark chocolate colour;
their hair was black, but not woolly; it was short cropped, in some
lank, and in others curled. Dampier says, that the people whom he saw on
the western coast of this country, wanted two of their fore-teeth, but
these had no such defect: some part of their bodies had been painted
red, and the upper lip and breast of one of them was painted with
streaks of white, which he called _Carbanda_; their features were far
from disagreeable, their eyes were lively, and their teeth even and
white, their voices were soft and tunable, and they repeated many words
after us with great facility. In the night, Mr. Gore and the master
returned with the long-boat, and brought one turtle and a few
shell-fish. The yawl had been left upon the shoal with six men, to make
a farther trial for turtle.
The next morning, we had another visit from four of the natives; three
of them had been with us before, but the fourth was a stranger, whose
name, as we learnt from his companions who introduced him, was YAPARICO.
This gentleman was distinguished by an ornament of a very striking
appearance: it was the bone of a bird, nearly as thick as a man’s
finger, and five or six inches long, which he had thrust into a hole,
made in the gristle that divides the nostrils; of this we had seen one
instance, and only one, in New Zealand; but, upon examination, we found
that among all these people this part of the nose was perforated, to
receive an ornament of the same kind: they had also holes in their ears,
though nothing was then hanging to them, and had bracelets upon the
upper part of their arms, made of platted hair, so that, like the
inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, they seem to be fond of ornament, though
they are absolutely without apparel; and one of them, to whom I had
given part of an old shirt, instead of throwing it over any part of his
body, tied it as a fillet round his head. They brought with them a fish,
which they gave us, as we supposed, in return for the fish that we had
given them the day before. They seemed to be much pleased, and in no
haste to leave us, but seeing some of our gentlemen examine their canoe
with great curiosity and attention, they were alarmed, and jumping
immediately into it, paddled away without speaking a word.
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