Apit in 0rder t0 obferve an eclipfe of the firft fatellite of Jupiter
'— «— ' but the weather becoming cloudy, we were difappointed.
Tuefday 18. On the 18th, at day-break, I went on fhore, with as many
people as could poflibly be fpared from the fhip, and began
to eredl: our fort. While fome were employed in throwing
up intrenchments, others were bufy in cutting pickets and
fafcines, which the natives, who foon gathered round us as
they had been ufed to do, were fo far from hindering, that
many of them voluntarily affifted us, bringing the pickets
and fafcines from the wood where they had been cut, with
great alacrity: we had indeed heen fo fcrupulous of invading
their property, that we purchafed every Hake which
was ufed upon this occafion, and cut down no tree till we
had firft obtained their confent. The foil where we con-
ftruCled our fort was fandy, and this made it neeeflary to
ftrengthen the entrenchments with wood ; three fides were
to be fortified in this manner -r the fourth was bounded by a
river, upon the banks of which I propofed to place a proper
number of water calks. This day we ferved pork to the
Ihip’s company for the firft time, and the Indians brought
down fo much bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, that we found it
neeeflary to fend away part of them unbought, and to acquaint
them, by figns, that we fhoutd want no more for two
days to come. Every thing was purchafed this day with beads:
a Angle bead, as big as a pea, being the purchafe of five or fix
cocoa-nuts, and as many of the bread-fruit. Mr.. Banks’s
tent was got up before night within the works, and he llept
on fhore for the firft time. Proper centrfes were placed
round it, but no Indian attempted to approach it the whole
night.
-Wcdncf. tg. The next morning, our friend Tubourai Tamaide made
Mr. Banks a vifit, at the tent, and brought with him not
only
only his wife and family, but the roof of a houfe, and ,g§|<
feveral materials, for fetting it up, with furniture and im- — ,—
_ . . . j n j • Wednef. i
plements o f various kinds, intending, as we underltood him,
to. take up his refidencein our neighbourhood: this inftance
of his confidence and good-will gave us great pleafure, and
we determined to ftrengthen his attachment to us- by every
means in our power. Soon after his arrival, he took Mr.
Banks by the hand, and leading him out of the line, figni-
fied that he fhould accompany him into, the woods. Mr.
Banks readily confented, and having walked with him about
a quarter of a mile, they arrived at a kind of awning which
he had already fet up, and which feemed to be his occafional
habitation. Here he unfolded a bundle of his country
cloth, and taking out two- garments, one of red' cloth, and
the other of very neat matting, he clothed Mr. Banks in
them, and without any other ceremony, immediately conducted
him back to the tent. His attendants foon after
brought him fome pork and bread-fruit, which he eat, dipping
his meat into fait water inftead of fauce t after his meal
he retired to Mr. Banks’s bed, and flept about an hour. In
the afternoon, his wife Tomio- brought to the tent a young
man about two and twenty years of age, of a very comely
appearance, whom they both feemed to acknowledge as
their fan, though we afterwards difcovered that he was not
fo. In the evening, this young, man and another Chief, who
had alfo paid us a vifit, went away to the weftward, but
Tubourai Tamaide and his wife returned to the awning irt
the Ikirts of the wood-
Our Surgeon, Mr. Mbnkhoufe, having walked' out this
evening, reported, that he had feen the body of the man-
who- had been fhot at the tents, which he find was wrapped
in cloth, and placed on a kind of bier, fupported by ftakes,
under a roof that feemed to have been fet up for the pur-
6 pofe>