November. Pons: dley ^ad patoo-patoos both of ftone and whalebone,
s^dlTX' Up0n Which they aPPeared t0 fet a great value; they had alfo
ribs of whale, of which we had before feen imitations in
wood, carved and adorned with tufts of dog’s hair. Their
complexions were browner than thofe of the people we had
feen to the fouthward, and their bodies and faces were more
marked with the black ftains which they call Amoco: they
had a broad fpiral on each buttock; and the thighs of many
of them were almoft intirely black, fome narrow lines only
being left untouched, fo that at firft fight they appeared to
wear ftriped breeches. With refped to the Amoco, every
different tribe feemed to have a different cuftom, for all the
men, in fome canoes, feemed to be almoft covered with it,,
and thofe in others had fcarcely a ftain, except on the lips,'
which were black in all of them without a Angle exception
Thefe gentlemen, for a long time, refufed to part with any
of their weapons, whatever was offered for- them; at laft,
however, one of them produced a piece of talc, wrought
into the Ihape of an ax, and agreed to fell it for a piece of
cloth : the cloth was handed over the fftip’s fide, but his honour
immediately put off his canoe with the ax. We had
recourfe to our ufual expedient, and fired a mufket ball over
the canoe, upon which it put back to the Ihip, and the
piece of cloth was returned; all the boats then went afhore,
without offering any further intercourfe.
At noon, the main land extended from S. by E. to N. W.
by W. a remarkable point of land bearing W. diftant four or
five miles; at three we paffed it, and I gave it the name o f
C a p e B r e t , in honour of Sir Piercy. The land of this Cape
is confiderably higher than any part of the adjacent coaft: at
the point of it, is a high round hillock, and N. E. by N. at the
diftance of about a mile, is a fmall high iftand or rock,
which, like feveral that have already been defcribed, was
perforated
perforated quite through, fo as to appear like the arch of a »3^
bridge. This Cape, or at leaft fome part of it, is by the na- »—
tives called M o t u g o g o o O , and it lies in latitude 35° 10'30'S,
longitude 185° ay' W. On the weft fide of it is a large and
pretty deep bay, lying in S. W. by W. in which there appeared
to be feveral fmall iflahds: the point that forms the N.W.
entrance, lies W. 4. N. at the diftance of three or four leagues
from Cape Bret, and I diftinguilhed it by the name of PoittT
P o c o c k e . On the weft fide of the bay we faw feveral villages,
both upon iflands and the main, and feveral very large
canoes came off to us, full of people, who made a better appearance
than any we had feen yet: they were all flout and
well-made; their hair, which was black, was tied up in a
bunch on the crown o f their heads, and fluck with white
feathers. In each of the canoes were two or three Chiefs,
whofe habits were of the beft fort of cloth, and covered with
dog’s fkin, fo as to make an agreeable appearance; moil of
thefe people were marked with the Amoco, like thofe who
had been alongfide of us before; their manner of trading
was alfo equally fraudulent; and the officers neglefting
either to punifh or fright them, one of the midfhipmen who
had been defrauded in his bargain, had recourfe, for revenge,
to an expedient which was equally ludicrous and
fevere: he got a fiffiing line, and when the man who had
cheated him was clofe under the fliip’s fide in his canoe, he
heaved the lead with fo good an aim that the hook caught
him by the backfide ; he then pulled the lifte, and the man.
holding back, the hook broke in the fhank, and the beard
was left flicking in the flefh.
During the courfe of this day, though we did not range
more than fix or eight leagues of the coaft, we had alongfide
and on board the ihip between four and five hundred of
a