Between six and seven o'clock two canoes came off, and told us that they had heard of yesterday's adventure, notwithstanding which the people came on board, and traded very quietly and honestly for whatever they had: Soon after two canoes came off from a more distant part of the shore; these were of a much larger size, and full of people: When they came near, they called off the other canoes which were along side of the ship, and after a short conference they all came up together. The strangers appeared to be persons of a superior rank; their canoes were well carved with many ornaments, and they had with them a great variety of weapons: They had patoo-patoos both of stone and whalebone, upon which they appeared to set a great value; they had also ribs of whale, of which we had before seen imitations in wood, carved and adorned with tufts of dog's hair. Their complexions were browner than those of the people we had seen to the southward, and their bodies and faces were more marked with the black stains which they call amoco: They had a broad spiral on each buttock; and the thighs of many of them were almost entirely black, some narrow lines only being left untouched, so that at first sight they appeared to wear striped breeches. With respect to the amoco, every different tribe seemed to have a different custom, for all the men in some canoes seemed to be almost covered with it, and those in others had scarcely a stain, except on the lips, which were black in all of them without a single exception. These gentlemen, for a long time, refused to part with any of their weapons, whatever was offered for them; at last, however, one of them produced a piece of talc, wrought into the shape of an axe, and agreed to sell it for a piece of cloth: The cloth was handed over the ship's side, but his honour immediately put off his canoe with the axe. We had recourse to our usual expedient, and fired a musket-ball over the canoe, upon which it put back to the ship, and the piece of cloth was returned; all the boats then went ashore, without offering any further intercourse.
At noon, the main land extended from S. by E. to N.W. by W. a remarkable point of land bearing W. distant four or five miles; at three we passed it, and I gave it the name of Cape Bret, in honour of Sir Piercy. The land of this Cape is considerably higher than any part of the adjacent coast: At the point of it is a high round hillock, and N.E. by N. at the distance of about a mile, is a small high island or rock, which, like several that have already been described, was perforated quite through, so as to appear like the arch of a bridge. This Cape, or at least some part of it, is by the natives called Motugogogo, and it lies in latitude 35° 10' 30" S. longitude 185° 25' W. On the west side of it is a large and pretty deep bay, lying in S.W. by W. in which there appeared to be several small islands: The point that forms the N.W. entrance lies W. 1/4 N. at the distance of three or four leagues from Cape Bret, and I distinguished it by the name of Point Pococke. On the west side of the bay we saw several villages, both upon islands and the main, and several very large canoes came off to us, full of people, who made a better appearance than any we had seen yet: They were all stout and well-made; their hair, which was black, was tied up in a bunch on the crown of their heads, and stuck with white feathers. In each of the canoes were two or three chiefs, whose habits were of the best sort of cloth, and covered with dog's skin, so as to make an agreeable appearance: Most of these people were marked with the amoco, like those who had been alongside of us before: Their manner of trading was also equally fraudulent; and the officers neglecting either to punish or fright them, one of the midshipmen, who had been defrauded in his bargain, had recourse for revenge to an expedient which was equally ludicrous and severe: He got a fishing line, and when the man who had cheated him was close under the ship's side in his canoe, he heaved the lead with so good an aim that the hook caught him by the backside; he then pulled the line, and the man holding back, the hook broke in the shank, and the beard was left sticking in the flesh.
During the course of this day, though we did not range more than six or eight leagues of the coast, we had alongside and on board the ship between four and five hundred of the natives, which is a proof that this part of the country is well inhabited.
At eight o'clock the next morning we were within a mile of a group of islands which lie close under the main, at the distance of two-and-twenty miles from Cape Bret, in the direction of N.W. by W. 1/2 W. At this place, having but little wind, we lay about two hours, during which time several canoes came off, and sold us some fish, which we called cavalles, and for that reason I gave the same name to the islands. These people were very insolent, frequently threatening us, even while they were selling their fish; and when some more canoes came up, they began to pelt us with stones. Some small shot were then fired, and hit one of them while he had a stone in his hand, in the very action of throwing it into the ship: They did not, however, desist, till some others had been wounded, and then they went away, and we stood off to sea.
The wind being directly against us, we kept plying to windward till the 29th, when we had rather lost than gained ground; I therefore bore up for a bay which lies to the westward of Cape Bret; at this time it was about two leagues to leeward of us; and at about eleven o'clock we anchored under the south-west side of one of the many islands which line it on the south-east, in four fathom and a half water; we shoaled our water to this depth all at once, and if this had not happened I should not have come to an anchor so soon. The master was immediately sent out with two boats to sound, and he soon discovered that we had got upon a bank, which runs out from the northwest end of the island, and that on the outside of it there was from eight to ten fathom.
In the mean time the natives, to the number of near four hundred, crowded upon us in their canoes, and some of them were admitted on board: To one, who seemed to be a chief, I gave a piece of broad cloth, and distributed some trifling presents among the rest. I perceived that some of these people had been about the ship when she was off at sea, and that they knew the power of our fire-arms, for the very sight of a gun threw them into manifest confusion: Under this impression they traded very fairly; but the people in one of the canoes took the opportunity of our being at dinner to tow away our buoy: A musket was fired over them, but without effect, we then endeavoured to reach them with small shot; but they were too far off: By this time they had got the buoy into their canoe, and we were obliged to fire a musket at them with ball: This hit one of them, and they immediately threw the buoy overboard: A round shot was then fired over them, which struck the water and went ashore. Two or three of the canoes immediately landed their people, who ran about the beach, as we imagined, in search of the ball. Tupia called to them, and assured them that while they were honest they should be safe, and with a little persuasion many of them returned to the ship, and their behaviour was such as left us no reason to suspect that they intended to give us any farther trouble.
After the ship was removed into deeper water, and properly secured, I went with the pinnace and yawl, manned and armed, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr Solander, and landed upon the island, which was about three quarters of a mile distant: We observed that the canoes which were about the ship, did not follow us upon our leaving her, which we thought a good sign; but we had no sooner landed than they crowded to different parts of the island and came on shore. We were in a little cove, and in a few minutes were surrounded by two or three hundred people, some rushing from behind the heads of the cove, and others appearing on the tops of the hills: They were all armed, but they came on in so confused and straggling a manner that we scarcely suspected they meant us any harm, and we were determined that hostilities should not begin on our part. We marched towards them, and then drew a line upon the sand between them and us, which we gave them to understand they were not to pass: At first they continued quiet, but their weapons were held ready to strike, and they seemed to be rather irresolute than peaceable. While we remained in this state of suspence, another party of Indians came up, and now growing more bold as their number increased, they began the dance and song which are their preludes to a battle: Still, however, they delayed the attack, but a party ran to each of our boats, and attempted to draw them on shore; this seemed to be the signal, for the people about us at the same time began to press in upon our line: Our situation was now become too critical for us to remain longer inactive, I therefore discharged my musket, which was loaded with small shot, at one of the forwardest, and Mr Banks and two of the men fired immediately afterwards: This made them fall back in some confusion, but one of the chiefs, who was at the distance of about twenty yards, rallied them, and running forward waving his patoo-patoo, and calling loudly to his companions, led them to the charge. Dr Solander, whose piece was not yet discharged, fired at this champion, who stopped short upon feeling the shot, and then ran away with the rest: They did not, however, disperse, but got together upon a rising ground, and seemed only to want some leader of resolution to renew their attack. As they were now beyond the reach of small shot, we fired with ball, but as none of them took place they still continued in a body, and in this situation we remained about a quarter of an hour: In the mean time the ship, from whence a much greater number of Indians were seen than could be discovered in our situation, brought her broad-side to bear, and entirely dispersed them, by firing a few shot over their heads. In this skirmish only two of the Indians were hurt with the small-shot, and not a single life was lost, which would not have been the case if I had not restrained the men, who, either from fear or the love of mischief, shewed as much impatience to destroy them as a sportsman to kill his game.[64] When we were in quiet possession of our cove, we laid down our arms and began to gather celery, which grew here in great plenty: After a little time we recollected to have seen some of the people hide themselves in a cave of one of the rocks, we therefore went towards the place, when an old Indian, who proved to be the chief that I had presented with a piece of broad-cloth in the morning, came out with his wife and his brother, and in a supplicating posture, put themselves under our protection. We spoke kindly to them, and the old man then told us that he had another brother, who was one of those that had been wounded by the small shot, and enquired with much solicitude and concern if he would die. We assured him that he would not, and at the same time put into his hand both a musket-ball and some small shot, telling him, that those only who were wounded with the ball would die, and that the others would recover; at the same time assuring him, that if we were attacked again, we should certainly defend ourselves with the ball, which would wound them mortally. Having now taken courage, they came and sat down by us, and, as tokens of our perfect amity, we made them presents of such trifles as we happened to have about us.
[Footnote 64: This is a very candid admission, and quite characteristic of the ordinary race of sailors. They who freely expose their own lives, as a principle of professional expediency, are not by any means solicitously sparing of the lives of others, who may happen to disagree with them on questions of interest and advantage. Even the inferior officers, and especially those who wish to attract notice in whatever is reputable, as the means of obtaining promotion, do not in general differ essentially from the common men. The ingenious midshipman who contrived so very dexterously to hook the poor savage's backside, would have had very little difficulty in bringing himself to act the sportsman as a hunter or shooter as well as a fisher. Indeed there seems much stronger evidence than mere imagination can supply, for the opinion of Hobbes, that war is the state of nature to mankind. It is certain at least, that the love of mischief is very congenial to that part of it, which, on the whole, receives the least modification of what is natural, from the restraints of education. The darling dreams of Rousseau, alas! have no prototype in the history of our species.--E.]
Soon after we re-embarked in our boats, and having rowed to another cove in the same island, climbed a neighbouring hill, which commanded the country to a considerable distance. The prospect was very uncommon and romantic, consisting of innumerable islands, which formed as many harbours, where the water was as smooth as a mill-pool: We saw also many towns, scattered houses, and plantations, the country being much more populous than any we had seen. One of the towns was very near us, from which many of the Indians advanced, taking great pains to shew us that they were unarmed, and in their gestures and countenances, expressing great meekness and humility. In the mean time, some of our people, who, when the Indians were to be punished for a fraud, assumed the inexorable justice of a Lycurgus, thought fit to break into one of their plantations, and dig up some potatoes: For this offence I ordered each of them to be punished with twelve lashes, after which two of them were discharged; but the third, insisting that it was no crime in an Englishman to plunder an Indian plantation, though it was a crime in an Indian to defraud an Englishman of a nail, I ordered him back into his confinement, from which I would not release him till he had received six lashes more.
On the 30th, there being a dead calm, and no probability of our getting to sea, I sent the master, with two boats; to sound the harbour; and all the forenoon had several canoes about the ship, who traded in a very fair and friendly manner. In the evening we went ashore upon the main, where the people received us very cordially; but we found nothing worthy of notice.