"When he was tired of haranguing and exhorting, of which we did not understand a word, he rested, but two other men took up the speech in succession. Their speeches were not so long, and they did not declaim so vehemently.
"Many of the natives had their faces painted in an extraordinary way, and feathers fixed in their heads. Although they appeared friendly, it was impossible to persuade any of them to come on board. However, as the vessels had cast anchor, the captain had the sails furled, took in the topmasts, and unrigged the mizzen mast of the Resolution, in order to allow of repairs. Barter with the Indians soon commenced, and the most rigorous honesty prevailed. The objects offered were bear and wolf skins, and those of foxes, deers, and polecats, weasels, and especially otters, which are found in the islands east of Kamschatka. Also clothes made of a kind of hemp, bows, lances, fish-hooks, monstrous figures, and a kind of stuff of hair or wool, bags filled with red ochre, bits of sculptured wood, trinkets of copper and iron shaped like horse-shoes, which they wore hung from the nose.
"Human ears and hands, not yet free from flesh, struck us most among the things they offered us. They made us clearly understand that they had eaten the portions that were missing, and we indeed perceived that these hands and ears had been on the fire."
The English were not long in ascertaining that these natives were as habitual robbers as any they had hitherto met with. They were even more dangerous, as, possessing iron implements, they could easily cut the cords. They combined their thefts with intelligence, and one of them amused the sentinel at one end of the boat, whilst another snatched the iron from the other end. They sold a quantity of very good oil, and a great deal of fish, especially sardines.
When the numerous repairs needed by the ships were made, and the grass required for the few goats and sheep remaining on board had been shipped, Cook set sail on the 26th of April, 1778.
He gave the name of King George's Sound to the spot where he had stayed, although it was called Nootka by the natives.
The vessels had scarcely gained the open sea when a violent tempest overtook them, during which the Resolution sprung a leak on the starboard side below the water line.
Carried away by the storm, Cook passed the spot selected by geographers as the situation of the Strait of Admiral de Fonte, though he greatly wished to dispel all doubt on the subject.
The captain therefore continued along the American coast, surveying and naming the principal points. During this cruise he had constant intercourse with the Indians, and was not slow in noticing that their canoes had been replaced by boats, of which only the framework was wood, and over which were spread seal-skins.