The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World, Vol. III. Being the First of the Second VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World, Vol. III. Being the First of the Second Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
Next morning I sent over to the cove, where the natives reside, to haul
the seine, and took with me a boar and a young sow, two cocks and two
hens, we had brought from the isles. These I gave to the natives, being
persuaded they would take proper care of them, by their keeping Captain
Furneaux’s sow near five months; for I am to suppose it was caught soon
after we sailed. We had no better success with the seine than before;
nevertheless, we did not return on board quite empty, having purchased a
large quantity from the natives. When we were upon this traffic, they
showed a great inclination to pick my pockets, and to take away the fish
with one hand which they had just given me with the other. This evil one
of the chiefs undertook to remove, and with fury in his eyes made a show
of keeping the people at a proper distance. I applauded his conduct, but
at the same time kept so good a look-out, as to detect him in picking my
pocket of a handkerchief, which I suffered him to put in his bosom
before I seemed to know any thing of the matter, and then told him what
I had lost. He seemed quite ignorant and innocent, till I took it from
him; and then he put it off with a laugh, acting his part with so much
address, that it was hardly possible for me to be angry with him; so
that we remained good friends, and he accompanied me on board to dinner.
About that time we were visited by several strangers, in four or five
canoes, who brought with them fish and other articles, which they
exchanged for cloth, &c. These new comers took up their quarters in a
cove near us; but very early the next morning moved off with six of our
small water casks, and with them all the people we found here on our
arrival. This precipitate retreat of these last we supposed was owing to
the theft the others had committed. They left behind them some of their
dogs, and the boar I had given them the day before, which I now took
back again, as I had not another. Our casks were the least loss we felt
by these people leaving us; while they remained, we were generally well
supplied with fish, at a small expence.
We had fair weather, with the wind at north-east, on the 9th, which gave
us some hopes of seeing the Adventure; but these hopes vanished in the
afternoon, when the wind shifted to the westward.
The next morning our friends the natives returned again, and brought
with them a quantity of fish, which they exchanged for two hatchets.
Fair weather on the 12th enabled us to finish picking, airing, and
baking our biscuit; four thousand two hundred and ninety-two pounds of
which we found totally unfit to eat; and about three thousand pounds
more could only be eaten by people in our situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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