24,6 A VOYAGE TOWARDS THE SOUTH POLE,
NoveS-r freat t^iem as they expett to be treated. If I remember right,
v----' one of the arguments they made ufe of to Tupia, who fre-
Xueiday *3. quem]y expoftulated with them againft this cuftom, was, that
there could be no harm in killing and eating the man who
would do the fame by them, if it was in his power. For,
laid they, “ can there be any harm in eating our enemies,
p whom we have killed in battle? Would not thofe very
“ enemies have done the fame to us?” I have often feen
them Men to Tupia with great attention; but I never found
his arguments have any weight with them, or that, with
all his rhetoric, he could perfuade any one of them that this
cuftom was wrong. And when Oedidee, and feveral of our
people, fhewed their abhorrence of it, they only laughed at
them.
Among many reafons which I have heard affigned for the
prevalence of this horrid cuftom, the want of animal food
has been one; but how far this is deducible either from fadls
,or circumftances, I fhall leave thofe to find out who advanced
it. In every part of New Zealand where I have been, filh
was in fuch plenty, that the natives generally caught as
much as ferved both themfelves and us. They have alfo
plenty of dogs ; nor is there any want of wild-fowl, which
.they know very well how to kill. So that neither this, nor
the want of food of any kind, can, in my opinion, be the
reafon. But, whatever it may be, I think it was but too evident,
that they have a great liking for this kind of food.
I mull here obferve, that Oedidee foon learnt to converfe
with thefe people, as, I am perfuaded, he would have done
with the people of Amfterdam, had he been a little longer
with them; for he did not underftand the New Zealanders,
at firft, any more, or not fo much, as he underftood the
people of Amfterdam.
At
AND ROUND THE WORLD. 247
>773-
November.
Wednef, 24;.
At four o’clock in the morning, on the 24th, we unmoored
with an idtent to put to fea; but the wind being at North
and N. E. without, and blowing ftrong puffs into the cove,
made it necelfary for us to lie fall. While we were unmoor-
ing, fome of our old friends came on board to take their
leave o f us, and afterwards left the cove with all their
effedts; but thofe who had been out on the late expedition
.remained; and fome of the gentlemen having vifited therm
found the heart ftill flicking on the canoe, and the inteftines
lying on the beach; but the liver and lungs were now wanting.
Probably they had eaten them, after the carcafe was
all gone.
On the 25th, early in the morning, we weighed, with a ThurBay 2;,.
fmall breeze out of the cove, which carried us no farther
than between Motuara and Long Ifland, where we were
obliged to anchor; but, prefently after, a breeze fpringing
up at North, we weighed again, turned out of the Sound,
and flood over for Cape Teerawhitte..
During our flay in the Sound, we were plentifully fup-
plied with fiflf, procured from the natives at a very eafy
rate; and, befides the vegetables our own gardens afforded,
we found, every where, plenty of feurvy-grafs and cellery,
which I caufed to be dreffed every day for all hand‘s. By this
means, they had been moftly on a frefh diet for the three
preceding months ; and, at this time, we had neither a lick
nor fcorbutic man on board. It is necelfary to mention, for
the information of others, that we had now fome pork on
board, failed at Uiietea, and as good as any fever eat. The
manner in which we cured it, was thus: In the cool of the
evening the hogs were killed, dreffed, cut up, the bones cut
out, and the fleflx failed while it was yet hot.. The nextmornings