Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/144

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
116
VOYAGE IN SEARCH
[1793.

we had quitted, and examined it very carefully, to see whether we had not left something or other behind us. We observed one, who had the dexterity to pull out the nail by which one of our clocks had been hung up to a post.

Feenou came on board in the afternoon, and made the General a present of some bread-fruit, yams, plantains, and a pig. In return he received a saw, a hatchet, and several chisels: but we perceived, that he gave the hatchet a decided preference to the other tools. After having paid the greatest attention to the account we gave him of the attack made on our sentry by one of the natives, he promised to return the musket the next day; and told us, that he would bring the assassin to us, and do justice on him in our presence. He desired to see the gunner, who had received a large wound in the head, but happily not dangerous, as the helmet-cap he wore had deadened the blow. Feenou displayed much sensibility on seeing the wound, and presented the gunner with a piece of the stuff fabricated of the bark of the paper mulberry tree, to use in dressing the wound. In fact the properties of this stuff render it well adapted to such a purpose.

Feenou having ordered several of the natives, who attended him, to make kava, these immedi-ately