They express their
admiration by hissing like a goose.
To judge of the country by the little water we saw of it, it must be
fertile; but I believe their fruits are not so good as those of the Society
or Friendly Isles. Their cocoa-nut trees, I am certain, are not; and their
bread-fruit and plantains did not seem much better. But their yams appeared
to be very good. We saw no other animals than those I have already
mentioned. They have not so much as a name for a dog, and consequently have
none, for which reason we left them a dog and a bitch; and there is no
doubt they will be taken care of, as they were very fond of them.[5]
After we had got to sea, we tried what effect one of the poisoned arrows
would have on a dog. Indeed we had tried it in the harbour the very first
night, but we thought the operation was too slight, as it had no effect.
The surgeon now made a deep incision in the dog's thigh, into which he laid
a large portion of the poison, just as it was scraped from the arrows, and
then bound up the wound with a bandage. For several days after we thought
the dog was not so well as it had been before, but whether this was really
so, or only suggested by imagination, I know not.
