wheat, a kind of French bean, and tobacco, which last grows
m great quantity; and here and there is a young oak-tree.
We saw bullocks and poultry, but the natives would
not exchange them for our money, or for any thing we had
to offer. They refused dollars when offered as a present,
and, indeed, appeared to set no value upon any thing we’
shewed them, except wine glasses; but even these they
were unwilling to receive. One of the head men appeared
particularly pleased with a glass, which, after a good deal of
persuasion, he accepted, but, in about five minutes after,
he, and another man to whom a tumbler had been given,
came back and insisted upon returning the presents; and
then, without waiting for further persuasion, returned to
the village, leaving with us only one man, who, as soon as
all the rest were out of sight, accepted one of the glasses
with much eagerness.
These people have a proud sort of carriage, with an air
of composure and indifference about them, and an absence
of curiosity which struck us as being very remarkable.
Sometimes when we succeeded, by dint of signs and draw-
mgs, m expressing the nature of a question, they treated
it with derision and insolence. On one occasion, being
anxious to buy a clumsy sort of rake made of reeds,
which appeared to me curious, I succeeded in explaining’
my wish to the owner, one of the lowest class of villagers;
he laughed at first good humouredly, but immediately
afterwards seized the rake which was in my hand,
and gave it a rude push towards me with a disdainful fling
of the arm, accompanying this gesticulation by words,
which seemed to imply a desire to give any thing upon
condition of our going away. One man expressed the
general wish for our departure, by holding up a piece of
paper like a sail, and then blowing upon it in the direction
of the wind, at the same time pointing to the ships, thereby
denoting that the wind was fair, and that we had only to
set sail and leave the island. Several of the people were
marked with the small-pox. The children kept out of our
reach a t first, but before we went away, their fears had;
m some degree, subsided, for the boys, who, from their
feminine appearance, were mistaken a t first for girls, accompanied
us to some distance from the village.
Captain Maxwell named these islands Sir James Hall’s
group, in compliment to the President of the Royal So,
ciety of Edinburgh. They lie in longitude 124° 4(7 E. and
latitude 37° 50' N.
At eight o clock in the evening we weighed and stood to
the southward, but as the coast was quite unknown, we kept
rather offshore during the night, and in the morning no land
was in sight. On the 2d we stood to the eastward, but no