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
Early in the morning of the 30th, I set out with the two boats,
accompanied by the two Mr. Forsters, Oedidee, the chief, his wife, son,
and daughter, for an estate which Oedidee called his, situated at the
north end of the island. There I was promised to have hogs and fruit in
abundance; but when we came there we found that poor Oedidee could not
command one single thing, whatever right he might have to the _Whenooa_,
which was now in possession of his brother, who soon after we landed,
presented to me, with the usual ceremony, two pigs. I made him a very
handsome present in return, and Oedidee gave him every thing he had left
of what he had collected the time he was with us.
After this ceremony was over, I ordered one of the pigs to be killed and
dressed for dinner, and attended myself to the whole operation, which
was as follows: They first strangled the hog, which was done by three
men; the hog being placed on his back, two of them laid a pretty strong
stick across his throat, and pressed with all their weight on each end;
the third man held his hind legs, kept him on his back, and plugged up
his fundament with grass, I suppose to prevent any air from passing or
repassing that way. In this manner they held him for about ten minutes
before he was quite dead. In the mean time, some hands were employed in
making a fire, to heat the oven, which was close by. As soon as the hog
was quite dead, they laid him on the fire, and burnt or singed the hair,
so that it came off with almost the same ease as if it had been scalded.
As the hair was got off one part, another was applied to the fire till
they had got off the whole, yet not so clean but that another operation
was necessary; which was to carry it to the sea-side, and there give it
a good scrubbing with sandy stones, and sand. This brought off all the
scurf, &c. which the fire had left on. After well washing off the sand
and dirt, the carcase was brought again to the former place, and laid on
clean green leaves, in order to be opened. They first ripped up the skin
of the belly, and took out the fat or lard from between the skin and the
flesh, which they laid on a large green leaf. The belly was then ripped
open, and the entrails taken out and carried away in a basket, so that I
know not what became of them; but am certain they were not thrown away.
The blood was next taken out and put into a large leaf, and then the
lard, which was put to the other fat. The hog was now washed clean, both
inside and out, with fresh water, and several hot stones put into his
belly, which were shaken in under the breast, and green leaves crammed
in upon them. By this time the oven was sufficiently heated; what fire
remained was taken away, together with some of the hot stones; the rest
made a kind of pavement in the bottom of the hole or oven, and were
covered with leaves on which the hog was placed on his belly. The lard
and fat, after being washed with water, were put into a vessel, made
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