Rules to be observed by every person in or belonging to His Majesty's Bark the Endeavour for the better Establishing a regular and uniform Trade for Provisions, etc., with the Inhabitants of George's Island:--
1. To endeavour by every fair means to Cultivate a Friendship with the Natives, and to treat them with all imaginable humanity.
2. A Proper Person or Persons will be appointed to Trade with the Natives for all manner of Provisions, Fruits, and other Productions of the Earth; and no Officer or Seaman or other person belonging to the Ship, excepting such as are so appointed, shall Trade or offer to Trade for any sort of Provisions, Fruit or other Productions of the Earth, unless they have my leave so to do.
3. Every Person employ'd on shore on any duty whatsoever is strictly to attend to the same, and if by neglect he looseth any of His Arms or working Tools, or suffers them to be stole, the full value thereof will be charged against his pay, according to the Custom of the Navy in such Cases, and he shall receive such further punishment as the nature of the Offence may deserve.
4. The same Penalty will be inflicted upon every person who is found to Embezzle, Trade, or Offer to Trade with any of the Ship's Stores of what Nature so ever.
5. No sort of Iron or anything that is made of Iron, or any sort of Cloth or other useful or necessary Articles, are to be given in Exchange for anything but Provisions.
J.C.
As soon as the Ship was properly secured I went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and the other Gentlemen,* (* Cook generally uses this term for the civilians on board.) with a Party of Men under Arms; we took along with us Owhaa--who took us to the place where the Dolphin watered, and made signs to us as well as we could understand that we might Occupy that ground, but it hapned not to be fit for our purpose. No one of the Natives made the least opposition at our landing, but came to us with all imaginable Marks of Friendship and Submission. We Afterwards made a Circuit through the Woods, and then came on board. We did not find the inhabitants to be numerous, and we imagin'd that several of them had fled from their habitations upon our Arrival in the Bay.
Friday, 14th. This morning we had a great many Canoes about the Ship; the most of them came from the Westward, and brought nothing with them but a few Cocoa Nuts, etc. Two that appeared to be Chiefs we had on board, together with several others, for it was a hard matter to keep them out of the Ship, as they Climb like Munkeys; but it was still harder to keep them from Stealing but everything that came within their reach; in this they are Prodigious Expert. I made each of these two Chiefs a present of a Hatchet, things that they seemed mostly to value. As soon as we had partly got clear of these People I took 2 Boats and went to the Westward, all the Gentlemen being along with me. My design was to see if there was not a more commodious Harbour, and to try the disposition of the Natives, having along with us the 2 Chiefs above mentioned; the first place we landed at was in great Canoe Harbour (so called by Captain Wallis); here the Natives Flocked about us in great numbers, and in as friendly a manner as we could wish, only that they show'd a great inclination to Pick our Pockets. We were conducted to a Chief, who for distinction sake we called Hurcules. After staying a short time with him, and distributing a few Presents about us, we proceeded farther, and came to a Chief who I shall call Lycurgus; this man entertained us with broil'd fish, Cocoa Nutts, etc., with great Hospitality, and all the time took great care to tell us to take care of our Pockets, as a great number of People had crowded about us. Notwithstanding the care we took, Dr. Solander and Dr. Monkhouse had each of them their Pockets picked: the one of his spy glass and the other of his snuff Box. As soon as Lycurgus was made acquainted with the Theft he dispers'd the people in a moment, and the method he made use of was to lay hold on the first thing that came in his way and throw it at them, and happy was he or she that could get first out of his way. He seem'd very much concern'd for what had hapned, and by way of recompence offered us but everything that was in his House; but we refused to accept of anything, and made signs to him that we only wanted the things again. He had already sent people out after them, and it was not long before they were return'd. We found the Natives very numerous wherever we came, and from what we could judge seemed very peacably inclin'd. About six o'Clock in the evening we return'd on board, very well satisfied with our little Excursion.
Saturday, 15th. Winds at East during the day, in the Night a light breeze off the land; and as I apprehend it be usual here for the Trade wind to blow during a great part of the day from the Eastern Board, and to have it Calm or light breezes from the land that is Southerly during the night with fair weather, I shall only mention the wind and weather when they deviate from this rule. This morning several of the Chiefs we had seen Yesterday came on board, and brought with them Hogs, Bread fruit, etc., and for these we gave them Hatchets, Linnen, and such things as they valued. Having not met with yesterday a more Convenient situation for every purpose we wanted than the place we now are, I therefore, without delay, resolved to pitch upon some spot upon the North-East point of the Bay, properly situated for observing the Transit of Venus, and at the same time under the command of the Ship's Guns, and there to throw up a small fort for our defence. Accordingly I went ashore with a party of men, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Mr. Green. We took along with us one of Mr. Banks's Tents, and after we had fix'd upon a place fit for our purpose we set up the Tent and marked out the ground we intended to Occupy. By this time a number of the Natives had got collected together about us, seemingly only to look on, as not one of them had any weapon, either Offensive or defensive. I would suffer none to come within the lines I had marked out, excepting one who appeared to be a chief and old Owhaa--to these 2 men we endeavour'd to explain, as well as we could, that we wanted that ground to Sleep upon such a number of nights and then we should go away. Whether they understood us or no is uncertain, but no one appeared the least displeased at what we was about; indeed the Ground we had fixed upon was of no use to them, being part of the sandy Beach upon the shore of the Bay, and not near to any of their Habitations. It being too late in the day to do anything more, a party with a petty officer was left to guard the Tent, while we with another party took a Walk into the woods, and with us most of the natives. We had but just crossed the River when Mr. Banks shott three Ducks at one shott, which surprised them so much that most of them fell down as though they had been shott likewise. I was in hopes this would have had some good effect, but the event did not prove it, for we had not been long from the Tent before the natives again began to gather about, and one of them more daring than the rest pushed one of the Centinels down, snatched the Musket out of his hand and made a push at him, and then made off, and with him all the rest. Immediately upon this the Officer ordered the party to fire, and the Man who took the musket was shot Dead before he had got far from the Tent, but the musquet was carried quite off when this hapned. I and Mr. Banks with the other party was about half a Mile off, returning out of the woods, upon hearing the firing of Muskets, and the Natives leaving us at the same time, we Suspected that something was the matter and hastened our march, but before we arrived the whole was over, and every one of the Natives fled except old Owhaa, who stuck by us the whole time, and I believe from the first he either knew or had some suspicion that the People would attempt something at the Tent, as he was very much against our going into the Woods out of sight of the Tent. However, he might have other reasons, for Mr. Hicks, being ashore the day before, the natives would not permit him to go into the Woods. This made me resolved to go and see whether they meant to prescribe bounds to us or no. Old Owhaa, as I have said before, was the only one of the Natives that stayed by us, and by his means we prevail'd on about 20 of them to come to the Tent and there sit down with us, and Endeavour'd by every means in our power to Convince them that the Man was kill'd for taking away the Musket, and that we still would be friends with them. At sunset they left us seemingly satisfied, and we struck our Tent and went on board.