venged by a volley of mufketry, which killed feveral
natives. As thefe iflanders live in fight of each other, and
M. de Bougainville’s vifit was fo recent, the natives with
whom we had to deal, were probably apprifed of the power
of Europeans, and therefore ailed with caution.
Immediately after dinner, captain Cook and my father
went alhore on the north fide of the harbour, in queft of
our buoy, which the natives had conveyed thither, and
which we faw on the beach by the help of our glades. In
the mean time the fouthern fhore, on which we had landed
in the morning, was entirely clear of the natives ; but -in
the woods we heard the frequent fqu'eaking of pigs, from
whence it may be concluded that the natives pofiefs great
numbers of thefe animals. Soon after our boat’s departure,
feveral natives in their canoes came alongfide to trade
with us. They readily fold us their bows and arrows,
clubs and fpears, for old rags and other trifles, plying between
the fhip and the fhore all the evening. Their canoes
were fmall, not exceeding twenty feet in length, of indifferent
workmanfhip, and without ornament, but provided
with an outrigger. The number which came to the fhip
never amounted to more than fourteen, which feems to
confirm that thefe people are no great fifhermen.
Our boat returned before funfet, with the buoy which
they had taken as foon as they landed, without any oppo-
fition on the part of the natives. Some trifling appendages
to
to it were loft, but thefe could eafily be replaced. The inhabitants
of that part traded with the captain and his company,
felling their arms and ornaments for various trifles of
no intrinfic worth. An old woman parted with two femi-
tranfparent bits of felenites, cut into a conical fhape, and
connected at the pointed ends, by means of a ribbon made
of leaves. The diameter of the broad end was about half
an inch, and the length of each bit three quarters of an
inch. She took it out of the hole in the cartilage of her
nofe, which was. very broad, ugly, and fmeared with black
paint. Our people took great pains to obtain refrefhments
from the natives ; but notwithllanding all their figns, they
did not bring a Angle article cf food. Our goods, no doubt,
did not feem valuable enough in their eyes, to be confidered
as an equivalent to eatables, which are always the real riches
of mankind. Upon this plain principle the people of the
South Sea always a fled ; and from the value which they
put on our goods, after they were acquainted with their
ufes, we can with a degree of certainty judge of their opulence,
or the fertility of their country. From hence they
Hill proceeded northward, towards the exterior point of the.
harbour. Here they found fome bananas, bread-fruit trees»
coco-palms, and other plants, feparated by an enclofure t
and near them fome dwellings of the natives, wretched hovels,
of an inconfiderable fize, and fo low that they could
hardly Hand upright in them. They confifted of a roof
thatched