1777*
February.
Sunday 23.
Monday 24,
fuch a, manner, that no two blafts follow each other from
the fame quarter; and the nearer the ihore, the more their
effefels are felt.
The next day we were vifited by a tribe or family, confu
t in g o f about thirty perfons, men, women, and children,
who came from the upper part of the Sound. I had nevet
feen them before. The name of their Chief was Toma-
tongeauooranuc; a man of about forty-five years of age,
with a cheerful open countenance. And, indefed, the reft
o f his tribe were, in general, the handfomeft of the New
Zealand race I had ever met with.
By this time more than two-thirds o f the inhabitants o f
the Sound had fettled themfelves about us. Great numbers
o f them daily frequented the Ihips, and the encampment on
ihore: but the latter became, by far, the moft favourite
place of refort, while our people there were melting fome
feal blubber. No Greenlander was ever fonder of train-oil,
than our friends here feemed to be. They reliihed the very
ikimmings of the kettle, and dregs of the caiks; but a little
of the pure ftinking oil was a delicious feaft, fo eagerly defired,
that 1 fuppofe it is feldom enjoyed.
Having got on board as much hay and grafs as we judged
fufficient to ferve the cattle till our arrival at Otaheite, and
having completed the wood and water of both fhips, on
the 23d we ftruck our tents, and carried every thing off
from the ihore; and next morning we weighed anchor, and
flood out of the Cove. But the wind not being very fair,
and finding that the tide of ebb would be fpent before we
could get out o f the Sound, we caft anchor again a little
without the ifland Motuara, to wait for a more favourable
opportunity of putting into the ftrair. while
While we were unmooring and getting under fail, To- *777- Februar
matongeauooranuc, Matahouah, and many more of the i__
natives, came to take their leave of us, or rather to obtain,
i f they could, fome additional prefents from us before we
left them. Thefe two Chiefs became fuitors to me for fome
goats and hogs. Accordingly, I gave to Matahouah two
goats, a male and female with k id ; and to Tomaton-
geauooranuc two pigs, a boar and a fow. They made me
a promife not to kill them; though I muft own I put no
great faith in this. The animals which Captain Furneaux
fent on Ihore here, and which foon after fell into the hands
of the natives, I was now told were all dead; but I could get
no intelligence about the fate o f thofe I had left in Weft Bay,
and in Cannibal Cove, when I was here in the courfe of my
laft Voyage. However, all the natives, whom I converfed with
agreed, that poultry are now to be met with wild in the
woods behind Ship Cove; and I was afterward informed,
by the two youths who went away with us, that Tiratou, a
popular Chief amongft them, had a great many cocks and
hens in his feparate pofleifion, and one of the fows.
On my prefent arrival at this place, I fully intended to have
left not only goats and hogs, but Iheep, and a young bull,
with two heifers, if I could have found either a Chief powerful
enough to proteit and keep them, or a place where
there might be a probability of their being concealed from
thofe who would ignorantly attempt to deftroy them. But
neither the one nor the other prefented itfelf to me. Tiratou
was now abfent; and Tringoboohee, whom I had met
with during my laft Voyage *, and who feemed to be a per-
fon of much confequence at that time, had been killed five
* See Cook’s Voyage, Vol. ii. p. 157.
S 2 months