*773-
DECEMBER:-.
{hewed him the ice which was formed in the fcuttled calk
on the deck. He affured us, however, that he would at all-
events call this the white land, by way of diftinguilhing it
from all the reft. Already, at New Zeeland, he had collated
a number of little flender twigs, which he carefully tied
in a bundle, and made ufe of inftead of journals. For,
every iftand which he had feen. and v-ifited, after his departure
from the Society Illes, he had iclccicd a little twig ; fo
that his colledtion amounted at prefent to nine or ten, of
which he remembered the names perfectly well in the,
fame order as we had feen them,, and the white land, or
■ whennua. teatea, was the laft. He enquired frequently how
many other countries we fhould meet with in our way to-
England, and formed a feparate bundle of them, which he
ftudied every day with equal care as the lirft.. The tedi-
oufnefs of this part of our voyage probably made him fo
eager to know how it would end; and the fait provifions,
together with the cold climate, contributed to difguft him.
His ufual amufement was to feparate the red feathers from
the aprons, ufed in dancing, which, he had purchafed at
Tonga-Tabboo, and to join eight or- ten of them together
into a little tuft, by means of coco-nut core.. The reft of.
his time he paffed in walking on deck,' vifiting the officers
and petty officers, and warming himfelf by the fire in the
captain’ s cabin. We took this opportunity to improve in
the knowledge, of his language, and, by degrees,, revifed
the-
-the whole vocabulary which we had collected at the Society Dlc't7”p;,R,
Illes. By this method we became poflefled of a fund of
ufeful intelligence concerning his country and the adjacent
illes, which led us to make many enquiries at our fubfe-
quent return to thofe iflands.
The ice-fields-appeared, in different parts of the horizon,
about us on the i yth in the morning, fo that we were in a
manner embayed; and, as we faw no poffibility of advancing
to the fouth, we ran to the N. N. E. to get clear of
them. The weather, which was already foggy, became
thicker towards noon, and made our fituation, amidft a great
number of floating rocks of ice, extremely dangerous.
About one o’clock, whilft the people were at dinner, we
were alarmed by the fudden appearance of a large ifland of
ice juft a head of us. It was abfolutely impoffible either
to wear or tack the Ihip*, on account of its proximity, and
our only refource was to keep as-near the wind as poffible,
and to try to weather the danger. We were in the mod
dreadful fufpenfe for a few minutes, and though we fortunately
fucceeded, yet the Ihip paffed within her own length to
windward of it. Notwithftanding the conftant perils to which
nur courfe expofed us in this unexplored ocean, our Ihip’s
company were far from being fo uneafy as might have been
■ expedted ; and, as in battle the fight of death becomes familiar
and often unaffedting, fo here, by daily experiencing
* T o go round either with or againft the wind«
Y y y 3 fuch