A considerable number of the natives visited us daily; and every now and then we saw new faces. On their first coming, they generally went through a singular mode of introducing themselves. They would paddle, with all their strength, quite round both ships, a chief, or other principal person, in the canoe, standing up with a spear, or some other weapon, in his hand, and speaking, or rather hollowing, all the time. Sometimes the orator of the canoe would have his face covered with a mask, representing either a human visage, or that of some animal; and, instead of a weapon, would hold a rattle in his hand, as before described. After making this circuit round the ships, they would come alongside, and begin to trade without further ceremony. Very often, indeed, they would first give us a song, in which all in the canoe joined, with a very pleasing harmony. During these visits they gave us no other trouble than to guard against their thievish tricks. But, in the morning of the 4th, we had a serious alarm. Our party on shore, who were employed in cutting wood and filling water, observed that the natives all around them were arming themselves in the best manner they could; those who were not possessed of proper weapons, preparing sticks and collecting stones. On hearing this, I thought it prudent to arm also; but being determined to act upon the defensive, I ordered all our workmen to retreat to the rock, upon which we had placed our observatories; leaving the natives in quiet possession of the ground where they had assembled, which was within a stone’s throw of the Resolution’s stern. Our fears were ill-grounded: these hostile preparations were not directed against us, but against a body of their own countrymen, who were coming to fight them; and our friends of the Sound, on observing our apprehensions, used their best endeavours to convince us that this was the case. We could see that they had people looking out, on each point of the cove, and canoes frequently passed between them and the main body assembled near the ships. At length the adverse party, in about a dozen large canoes, appeared off the south point of the cove, where they stopped, and lay drawn up in line of battle, a negociation having commenced. Some people in canoes, in conducting the treaty, passed between the two parties, and there was some speaking on both sides. At length, the difference, whatever it was, seemed to be compromised; but the strangers were not allowed to come along-side the ships, nor to have any trade or intercourse with us. Probably we were the cause of the quarrel; the strangers, perhaps, being desirous to share in the advantages of a trade with us; and our first friends, the inhabitants of the Sound, being determined to engross us entirely to themselves. We had proofs of this on several other occasions; nay, it appeared that even those who lived in the Sound were not united in the same cause; for the weaker were frequently obliged to