A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
131
1773.
March.
Sunday 28.We had not been above two days in this bay, before we found that our opinion of its being uninhabited was premature. On the 28th in the morning several of our officers went a shooting in a small boat, and on entering a cove two or three miles from the ship, perceived several natives upon a beach, who were about to launch their canoe. The New Zeelanders halloo'd at their approach, and seeming by this means more numerous than they really were, the officers thought proper to return and acquaint the captain with their discovery; a step which they found the more necessary, as the weather was very rainy, and might, in case of danger, have prevented their pieces from going off. They were scarcely returned on board, when a canoe[1] appeared off a point, at about a mile's distance from the sloop; there were seven or eight people in it, who looked at us for some time, but notwithstanding all the signs of friendship which we could make, such as calling to them to come to us, waving a white cloth, and promising beads, they did not care to come nearer, and paddled back again the same way they came. They appeared to be dressed in mats, and had broad paddles with which they managed their canoe, like the inhabitants in the northern parts of New Zeeland.
March.
Sunday 28.We had not been above two days in this bay, before we found that our opinion of its being uninhabited was premature. On the 28th in the morning several of our officers went a shooting in a small boat, and on entering a cove two or three miles from the ship, perceived several natives upon a beach, who were about to launch their canoe. The New Zeelanders halloo'd at their approach, and seeming by this means more numerous than they really were, the officers thought proper to return and acquaint the captain with their discovery; a step which they found the more necessary, as the weather was very rainy, and might, in case of danger, have prevented their pieces from going off. They were scarcely returned on board, when a canoe[1] appeared off a point, at about a mile's distance from the sloop; there were seven or eight people in it, who looked at us for some time, but notwithstanding all the signs of friendship which we could make, such as calling to them to come to us, waving a white cloth, and promising beads, they did not care to come nearer, and paddled back again the same way they came. They appeared to be dressed in mats, and had broad paddles with which they managed their canoe, like the inhabitants in the northern parts of New Zeeland.
- ↑ We shall always make use of this word to signify an Indian embarkation, unless we mean to describe or specify it more particularly.
Captain
