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
On the 13th, clear and pleasant weather. Early in the morning the
natives brought us a quantity of fish, which they exchanged as usual.
But their greatest branch of trade was the green talc or stone, called
by them _Poenammoo_, a thing of no great value; nevertheless, it was so
much sought after by our people, that there was hardly a thing they
would not give for a piece of it.
The 15th, being a pleasant morning, a party of us went over to the East
Bay, and climbed one of the hills which overlooked the eastern part of
the strait, in order to look for the Adventure. We had a fatiguing walk
to little purpose; for when we came to the summit, we found the eastern
horizon so foggy, that we could not see above two miles. Mr. Forster,
who was one of the party, profited by this excursion, in collecting some
new plants. I now began to despair of seeing the Adventure any more, but
was totally at a loss to conceive what was become of her. Till now, I
thought she had put into some port in the strait, when the wind came to
north-west the day we anchored in the cove, and waited to complete her
water. This conjecture was reasonable enough at first, but it was now
hardly probable she could be twelve days in our neighbourhood, without
our either hearing or seeing something of her.
The hill we now mounted is the same that I was upon in 1770, when I had
the second view of the strait: we then built a tower with the stones we
found there, which we now saw had been levelled to the ground, no doubt
by the natives, with a view of finding something hid in it. When we
returned from the hill, we found a number of them collected round our
boat. After some exchanges, and making them some presents, we embarked,
in order to return on board, and in our way visited others of the
inhabitants, by whom we were kindly received.
Our friends the natives employed themselves on the 17th in fishing in
our neighbourhood, and, as fast as they caught the fish, came and
disposed of them to us, insomuch that we had more than we could make use
of. From this day to the 22d nothing remarkable happened, and we were
occupied in getting every thing in readiness to put to sea, being
resolved to wait no longer than the assigned time for the Adventure.
The winds were between the south and west, stormy with rain till the
22d, when the weather became settled, clear, and pleasant. Very early in
the morning we were visited by a number of the natives, in four or five
canoes, very few of whom we had seen before. They brought with them
various articles (curiosities) which they exchanged for Otaheitean
cloth, &c. At first the exchanges were very much in our favour, till an
old man, who was no stranger to us, came and assisted his countrymen
with his advice, which in a moment turned the trade above a thousand
_per cent._ against us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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