The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. V. Being the First of the Third VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. V. Being the First of the Third Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
Our visitors were conducted into the cabin, and to other parts of the
ship. Some objects seemed to strike them with a degree of surprise; but
nothing fixed their attention for a moment. They were afraid to come
near the cows and horses; nor did they form the least conception of
their nature. But the sheep and goats did not surpass the limits of
their ideas; for they gave us to understand that they knew them to be
birds. It will appear rather incredible, that human ignorance could ever
make so strange a mistake; there not being the most distant similitude
between a sheep or goat, and any winged animal. But these people seemed
to know nothing of the existence of any other land-animals, besides
hogs, dogs, and birds. Our sheep and goats, they could see, were very
different creatures from the two first, and therefore they inferred,
that they must belong to the latter class, in which they knew there is a
considerable variety of species. I made a present to my new friend of
what I thought might be most acceptable to him; but, on his going away,
he seemed rather disappointed than pleased. I afterward understood that
he was very desirous of obtaining a dog, of which animal this island
could not boast, though its inhabitants knew that the race existed in
other islands of their ocean. Captain Clerke had received the like
present, with the same view, from another man, who met with from him the
like disappointment.
The people in these canoes were in general of a middling size, and not
unlike those of Mangeea; though several were of a blacker cast than any
we saw there. Their hair was tied on the crown of the head, or flowing
loose about the shoulders; and though in some it was of a frizzling
disposition, yet, for the most part, that, as well as the straight sort,
was long. Their features were various, and some of the young men rather
handsome. Like those of Mangeea, they had girdles of glazed cloth, or
fine matting, the ends of which, being brought betwixt their thighs,
covered the adjoining parts. Ornaments, composed of a sort of broad
grass, stained with red, and strung with berries of the night-shade,
were worn about their necks. Their ears were bored, but not slit; and
they were punctured upon the legs, from the knee to the heel, which made
them appear as if they wore a kind of boots. They also resembled the
inhabitants of Mangeea in the length of their beards, and like them,
wore a sort of sandals upon their feet. Their behaviour was frank and
cheerful, with a great deal of good-nature.
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