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
Near the place where we landed, were some of those statues
before-mentioned, which I shall describe in another place. The country
appeared barren and without wood; there were, nevertheless, several
plantations of potatoes, plantains, and sugar-canes; we also saw some
fowls, and found a well of brackish water. As these were articles we
were in want of, and as the natives seemed not unwilling to part with
them, I resolved to stay a day or two. With this view, I repaired on
board, and brought the ship to an anchor in thirty-two fathoms’ water;
the bottom a fine dark sand. Our station was about a mile from the
nearest shore, the south point of a small bay, in the bottom of which is
the sandy beach before mentioned, being east south-east distant one mile
and an half. The two rocky islots lying off the south point of the
island were just shut behind a point to the north of them; they bore S.
3/4 W. four miles distant, and the other extreme of the island bore N.
25° E. distant about six miles. But the best mark for this
anchoring-place is the beach; because it is the only one on this side
the island. In the afternoon we got on board a few casks of water, and
opened a trade with the natives for such things as they had to dispose
of. Some of the gentlemen also made an excursion into the country to see
what it produced, and returned again in the evening, with the loss only
of a hat, which one of the natives snatched off the head of one of the
party.
Early next morning, I sent Lieutenants Pickersgill and Edgcumbe with a
party of men, accompanied by several of the gentlemen, to examine the
country. As I was not sufficiently recovered from my late illness to
make one of the party, I was obliged to content myself with remaining at
the landing-place among the natives. We had at one time a pretty brisk
trade with them for potatoes, which we observed they dug up out of an
adjoining plantation; but this traffic, which was very advantageous to
us, was soon put a stop to by the owner (as we supposed) of the
plantation coming down, and driving all the people out of it. By this we
concluded, that he had been robbed of his property, and that they were
not less scrupulous of stealing from one another than from us, on whom
they practised every little fraud they could think on, and generally
with success; for we no sooner detected them in one, than they found out
another. About seven o’clock in the evening, the party I had sent into
the country returned, after having been over the greatest part of the
island.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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