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
Accordingly we set out pretty early in the pinnace; and Captain Clerke
joined me in one of his own boats. We proceeded round, that is, to the
eastward of the little isles that form the harbour, and then turning to
the south, according to Poulaho’s directions, entered a spacious bay or
inlet, up which we rowed about a league, and landed amidst a
considerable number of people, who received us with a sort of
acclamation, not unlike our huzzaing. They immediately separated, to let
Poulaho pass, who took us into a small inclosure, and shifted the piece
of cloth he wore, for a new piece, neatly folded, that was carried by a
young man. An old woman assisted in dressing him, and put a mat over his
cloth, as we supposed, to prevent its being dirtied when he sat down. On
our now asking him where Mareewagee was, to our great surprize, he said,
he had gone from the place to the ship, just before we arrived. However,
he desired us to walk with him to a _malaee_, or house of public resort,
which stood about half a mile up the country; but when we came to a
large area before it, he sat down in the path, and desired us to walk up
to the house. We did so, and seated ourselves in front, while the crowd
that followed us filled up the rest of the space. After sitting a little
while, we repeated our inquiries, by means of Omai, whether we were to
see Mareewagee? But receiving no satisfactory information, and
suspecting that the old chief was purposely concealed from us, we went
back to our boats, much piqued at our disappointment; and when I got on
board, I found that no such person had been there. It afterward
appeared, that, in this affair, we had laboured under some gross
mistakes, and that our interpreter Omai had either been misinformed, or,
which is more likely, had misunderstood what was told him about the
great man, on whose account we had made this excursion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account