To Complete This Catalogue Of Horrors, We
Heard The Voices Of Sailors From Time To Time Louder Than The
Blustering Winds, Or The Raging Ocean Itself, Uttering Horrible
Vollies Of Curses And Oaths." - G.F.
[2] "In their unthinking situation, the first moment they have nothing
ready at hand to satisfy the cravings of appetite, our fowls must fall
the victims to their voracity.
If there are any hopes of succeeding in
the introduction of domestic animals in this country, it must be in
the populous bays to the northward, where the inhabitants seem to be
the more civilized, and are already accustomed to cultivate several
roots for their subsistance." - G.F.
SECTION V.
Transactions at Queen Charlotte's Sound; with an Account of the
Inhabitants being Cannibals; and various other Incidents. - Departure from
the Sound, and our Endeavours to find the Adventure; with some Description
of the Coast.
The first thing we did after mooring the ship, was to unbend all the sails;
there not being one but what wanted repair. Indeed, both our sails and
rigging had sustained much damage in beating off the Strait's mouth.
We had no sooner anchored than we were visited by the natives, several of
whom I remembered to have seen when I was here in the Endeavour,
particularly an old man named Goubiah.[1] In the afternoon, I gave orders
for all the empty water casks to be landed, in order to be repaired,
cleaned, and filled, tents to be set up for the sail-makers, coopers, and
others, whose business made it necessary for them to be on shore. The next
day we began to caulk the ship's sides and decks, to overhaul her rigging,
repair the sails, cut wood for fuel, and set up the smith's forge to repair
the iron-work; all of which were absolutely necessary. We also made some
hauls with the seine, but caught no fish; which deficiency the natives in
some measure, made up, by bringing us a good quantity, and exchanging them
for pieces of Otaheitean cloth, &c.
On the 5th, the most part of our bread being in casks, I ordered some to be
opened, when, to our mortification, we found a good deal of it damaged. To
repair this loss in the best manner we could, all the casks were opened;
the bread was picked, and the copper oven set up, to bake such parcels of
it, as, by that means, could be recovered. Some time this morning, the
natives stole, out of one of the tents, a bag of clothes belonging to one
of the seamen. As soon as I was informed of it, I went to them in an
adjoining cove, demanded the clothes again, and, after some time spent in
friendly application, recovered them. Since we were among thieves, and had
come off so well, I was not sorry for what had happened, as it taught our
people to keep a better lookout for the future.
With these people I saw the youngest of the two sows Captain Furneaux had
put on shore in Cannibal Cove, when we were last here:
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