Nothing Worthy Of Notice Happened Till The 29th, When Several Of The
Natives Made Us A Visit, And Brought With
Them a quantity of fish, which
they exchanged for nails, &c. One of these people I took over to Motuara,
And shewed him some potatoes planted there by Mr Fannen, master of the
Adventure. There seemed to be no doubt of their succeeding; and the man was
so well pleased with them, that he, of his own accord, began to hoe the
earth up about the plants. We next took him to the other gardens, and
shewed him the turnips, carrots, and parsnips; roots which, together with
the potatoes, will be of more real use to them than all the other articles
we had planted. It was easy to give them an idea of these roots, by
comparing them with such as they knew.
Two or three families of these people now took up their abode near us,
employing themselves daily in fishing, and supplying us with the fruits of
their labour; the good effects of which we soon felt. For we were, by no
means, such expert fishers as they are; nor were any of our methods of
fishing equal to theirs.
On the 2d of June, the ships being nearly ready to put to sea, I sent on
shore on the east side of the sound, two goats, male and female. The former
was something more than a year old; but the latter was much older. She had
two fine kids, some time before we arrived in Dusky Bay, which were killed
by cold, as hath been already mentioned. Captain Furneaux also put on
shore, in Cannibal Cove, a boar and two breeding sows; so that we have
reason to hope this country will in time be stocked with these animals, if
they are not destroyed by the natives before they become wild; for,
afterwards, they will be in no danger. But as the natives knew nothing of
their being left behind, it may be some time before they are discovered.
In our excursion to the east, we met with the largest seal I had ever seen.
It was swimming on the surface of the water, and suffered us to come near
enough to fire at it; but without effect; for, after a chase of near an
hour, we were obliged to leave it. By the size of this animal, it probably
was a sea-lioness. It certainly bore much resemblance to the drawing in
Lord Anson's voyage; our seeing a sea-lion when we entered this sound, in
my former voyage, increaseth the probability; and I am of opinion, they
have their abode on some of the rocks, which lie in the strait, or off
Admiralty Bay.
On the 3d, I sent a boat with the carpenter over to the east side of the
sound, to cut down some spars which we were in want of. As she was
returning, she was chased by a large double canoe full of people; but with
what intent is not known. Early the next morning, some of our friends
brought us a large supply of fish. One of them agreed to go away with us;
but afterwards, that is, when it came to the point, he changed his mind; as
did some others who had promised to go with the Adventure.
It was even said that some of them offered their children to sale. I
however found that this was a mistake. The report first took its rise on
board the Adventure, where they were utter strangers to their language and
customs. It was very common for these people to bring their children with
them, and present them to us, in expectation that we would make them
presents; this happened to me the preceding morning. A man brought his son,
a boy about nine or ten years of age, and presented him to me. As the
report of selling their children was then current, I thought, at first,
that he wanted me to buy the boy. But at last I found that he wanted me to
give him a white shirt, which I accordingly did. The boy was so fond of his
new dress, that he went all over the ship, presenting himself before every
one that came in his way. This freedom used by him offended Old Will, the
ram goat, who gave him a butt with his horns, and knocked him backward on
the deck. Will would have repeated his blow, had not some of the people
come to the boy's assistance. The misfortune, however, seemed to him
irreparable. The shirt was dirtied, and he was afraid to appear in the
cabin before his father, until brought in by Mr Forster; when he told a
very lamentable story against goury the great dog (for so they call all the
quadrupeds we had aboard), nor could he be reconciled, till his shirt was
washed and dried. This story, though extremely trifling in itself, will
shew how liable we are to mistake these people's meaning, and to ascribe to
them customs they never knew even in thought.
About nine o'clock, a large double canoe, in which were twenty or thirty
people, appeared in sight. Our friends on board seemed much alarmed,
telling us that these were their enemies. Two of them, the one with a
spear, and the other with a stone-hatchet in his hand, mounted the arm-
chests on the poop, and there, in a kind of bravado, bid those enemies
defiance; while the others, who were on board, took to their canoe and went
ashore, probably to secure the women and children.
All I could do, I could not prevail on the two that remained to call these
strangers along-side; on the contrary, they were displeased at my doing it,
and wanted me to fire upon them. The people in the canoe seemed to pay very
little regard to those on board, but kept advancing slowly towards the
ship, and after performing the usual ceremonies, put along-side.
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