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
About ten o’clock the family of the natives paid us a visit. Seeing that
they approached the ship with great caution, I met them in a boat, which
I quitted when I got to them, and went into their canoe. Yet, after all,
I could not prevail on them to put along-side the ship, and at last was
obliged to leave them to follow their own inclination. At length they
put ashore in a little creek hard by us, and afterwards came and sat
down on the shore abreast of the ship, near enough to speak with us. I
now caused the bagpipes and fife to play, and the drum to beat. The two
first they did not regard, but the latter caused some little attention
in them; nothing, however, could induce them to come on board. But they
entered, with great familiarity, into conversation (little understood)
with such of the officers and seamen as went to them, paying much
greater regard to some than to others, and these we had reason to
believe they took for women. To one man, in particular, the young woman
showed an extraordinary fondness until she discovered his sex, after
which she would not suffer him to come near her. Whether it was that she
before took him for one of her own sex; or that the man, in order to
discover himself, had taken some liberties with her which she thus
resented, I know not.
In the afternoon, I took Mr. Hodges to a large cascade, which falls from
a high mountain on the south-side of the bay, about a league above the
place where we lay. He took a drawing of it on paper, and afterwards
painted it in oil-colours; which exhibits, at once, a better description
of it than any I can give. Huge heaps of stones lay at the foot of this
cascade, which had been broken off and brought by the stream from the
adjacent mountains. These stones were of different sorts; none, however,
according to Mr. Forster’s opinion (who I believe to be a judge),
contains either minerals or metals. Nevertheless I brought away
specimens of every sort, as the whole country, that is, the rocky part
of it, seemed to consist of those stones and no other. This cascade is
at the east point of a cove, lying in S. W. two miles, which I named
Cascade Cove. In it is good anchorage and other necessaries. At the
entrance, lies an island, on each side of which is a passage; that on
the east side is much the widest. A little above the isle, and near the
S. E. shore, are two rocks, which are covered at high water. It was in
this cove we first saw the natives.
When I returned aboard in the evening I found our friends the natives
had taken up their quarters about 100 yards from our watering-place; a
very great mark of the confidence they placed in us. This evening a
shooting party of the officers went over to the north side of the bay,
having with them a small cutter to convey them from place to place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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