•ï4 6
■ 1773.
.April.
A V O Y A G E ROUND THE WORL D .
'One of the boat’s gang-boards, waffled clean, anfwered the
feveral purpofes of a table, of -dilh.es, and plates ; and our
fingers and teeth did yeoman’s fervice, inftead of knives and
forks. A keen appetite, procured by. flrong exercife, and excited
by the lharp air of the country, foon taught us to
overcome the ideas of indelicacy, which civilized nations
connect with this way of living ; and we never fo ftrongly
felt how little is wanting to fatisfy the cravings of the fto-
mach, and to fupport the exiftence of human beings, as on
thefe occafions. After fupper we liftened a while to the
original comic vein of our boat’s crew, who huddled
round the fire, made their meal, and recited a number of
.droll llories, intermixed with hearty curfes, oaths, and indecent
expreflions, but feldom without real humour. Then
fire wing our tent with heaps of fern leaves, and wrapping
.Ourfelves in our boat-cloaks, with our guns and Ihooling-
bags for our pilldws, we compofed ourfelves to fleep.
At day-break Captain Cook and my father, with two
men, went in a fmall boat to take a view of the head of
the cove, where they faw fome fiat land. They went on
fliore upon it at one corner, and ordered the boat to meet
them at the oppofite point. They had not walked a grea*
way ’before they faw fome wild-ducks, and, by creeping
through the bulhes, came near enough to fire and kill one
o f them. The moment - they had fired they heard a hideous
ffciout of feveral loud and piercing voices round about
them
A VOY AGE ROUND THE WORLD. 167
them from different quarters. They Ihouted in their turn,
aiid taking up the duck retired towards the boat, which
was full half a mile off. The natives continued their clamours,
but did not follow them ; for indeed a deep
branch of a river was between them, and their numbers
were too inconfiderable to attempt hoftilities; but thefe
circumftances we only learnt in the fequel. We had in
the mean while taken a ramble into the woods in fearch
of plants ; but hearing the fhout of the natives, we embarked
immediately in the remaining boat and joined the
other, which by this time had taken Captain Cook and
my father on board. We therefore proceeded up into a;
river, which was deep enough for the boats, and amufed
ourfelves with Ihooting ducks, which were here in great
plenty. We now faw a man, woman, and child on the
left fliore, and the woman waved to us with a white bird’s
fkin, probably in fign of peace and friendfliip. On this
occafion I could not help admiring, that almoft all nations
on our globe have tacitly agreed upon the white colour, or
upon green branches, as tokens of a peaceable difpofition,
and that with thefe in their hands they confidently rely on
a- ftranger’s placability. Perhaps this general agreement
had its origin anterior to the- univerfal difperfion of the-
human fpecies ; this will feem the more probable when it
is confide red, that neither the white colour, nor the green
boughs of a. tree, have any intrinfic character, to which;
the