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brought it on board, where a piece of the flesh was broiled and eaten by one of the na tives, before all the officers and most of the men. Captain Cook was on fhore at this time, but foon after returning on board, was informed of the above circumstance; and found the quarter-deck crowded with the natives, and the mangled head, or rather part of it, (for the under jaw and lip were wanting) lying on the tafferal. The skull had been broken on the left side, just above the temples; and the remains of the face had all the appearance of a youth under twenty.

The fight of the head, and the relation of the above circumftances, ftruck him with horror, and filled his mind with indignation against these cannibals. Curiofity, however, got the better of his indignation, efpecially when he confidered that it would avail but little; and being defirous of becoming an eye-witness of a fact which many doubted, he ordered a piece of the flesh to be broiled and brought to the quarter-deck, where one of these cannibals eat it with furprising avidity. This had fo great an effect on some of the failors as to make them fick. This youth had been killed in a skirmish between two parties.

That the New Zealanders are cannibals, can now no longer be doubted. The account given of this in Captain Cook's former voyage being partly founded on circumstances, was, as he afterwards understood, difcredited by many perfons. Few confider what a favage man is in his natural state, and even after he is in fome degree civilized.

On the 25th, they weighed, with a fmall breeze, out of the cove. The morning before they failed, Captain Cook wrote a memorandum, fetting forth the time he arrived, the day he failed, the route he intended to take, and fuch other information as he thought neceffary for Captain Furneaux, in cafe he fhould put into the Sound; and buried it in a bottle under the root of a tree in the garden, which is at the bottom of the cove, in such a manner as must be found by him or any European who might put into the cove.

At day-light in the morning on the 26th, they made fail round Cape Pallifer, firing guns as ufual, as they ran along the fhore. In this manner they proceeded till they were three or four leagues to the north-east of the Cape.

Every one being unanimoufly of opinion that the Adventure could neither be stranded on the coast, nor be in any of the harbours thereof, they gave up looking for her, and all thoughts of seeing her any more during the voyage, as no rendezvous was abfolutely fixed upon after leaving New Zealand.

On quitting the coaft, and confequently all hopes of their being joined by their confort, not a man was dejected, or thought the dangers they had yet to go through, were in the least increased by being alone.

On the 14th of December they fell in with feveral large iflands of ice, and, about noon, with a quantity of loofe ice through which they failed. Grey albatroffes, blue peterels, pintadoes, and fulmers, were feen. As they advanced to the fouth-eaft-byeaft, with a fresh gale at weft, they found the number of ice-iflands increafe fast, also a confiderable quantity of loofe ice. They tacked, ftretched to the north, and foon got clear of it, but not before they had received feveral hard knocks from the larger pieces, which, with all their care, they could not avoid. After clearing one danger they ftill had another to encounter; the weather remained foggy, and many large iflands lay in their way; so that they had to luff for one, and bear up for another. One they were very near falling aboard of; and if it had happened, this circumftance would never have been related. Thefe difficulties determined them to get more to the north.

On the 17th they took fome ice out of the sea into their boats, for the use of the ship, but it proved to be none of the best, being chiefly compofed of frozen fnow; on which 8

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account it was porus, and imbibed a good deal of falt water: but this drained off, after lying awhile on the deck, and the water then yielded was frefh. They continued to ftretch to the east, with a cold northerly wind, attended with a thick fog, fnow, and fleet, that decorated all their rigging with icicles.

On the 21ft, they very fuddenly got in amongst a cluster of very large ice islands, and a vast quantity of loofe pieces; and as the fog was exceedingly thick, it was with the utmost difficulty they wore clear of them.

On the 23d, the wind being pretty moderate, and the fea fmooth, they brought-to, at the outer edge of the ice, hoisted out two boats, and fent to take fome up. The snow froze to the rigging as it fell, making the ropes like wires, and the fails like boards or plates of metal.

While they were taking up ice, they got two of the antarctic peterels. They are about the size of a large pigeon; the feathers of the head, back, and part of the upper fide of the wings, are of a light brown; the belly and under fide of the wings white; the tail feathers are alfo white, but tipped with brown. Thefe birds are fuller of feathers than any they had hitherto feen; fuch care has nature taken to clothe them, fuitable to the climate in which they live. They alfo faw a very large feal, which kept playing about for fome time. One of their people who had been at Greenland, called it a fea-horse; but every one else who faw it, took it for what it really was.

In the morning of the 26th, the whole fea was in a manner covered with ice, 200 large islands and upwards being feen within the compass of four or five miles.

On the 30th, feveral whales where feen playing about the ship, but very few birds; iflands of ice in plenty.

On the 30th of January, 1774, at four o'clock in the morning, they perceived the clouds, over the horizon to the fouth, to be of an unusual fnow-white brightness, which they knew denounced their approach to field-ice. Soon after, it was feen from the top-mast-head; and at eight o'clock, they were close to its edge.

It extended eaft and weft, far beyond the reach of their fight. In the fituation they were in, just the southern half of the horizon was illuminated by the rays of light reflected from the ice, to a confiderable height. Ninety-feven ice-hills were distinctly feen within the field, befide thofe on the outfide; many of them very large, and looking like a ridge of mountains, rifing one above another till they were loft in the clouds. The outer or northern edge of this immenfe field was compofed of loofe or broken ice close packed together, fo that it was not poffible for any thing to enter it. This was about a mile broad; within which was folid ice in one continued compact body. It was rather low and flat (except the hills), but feemed to increase in height to the south; in which direction it extended beyond their fight. Such mountains of ice as thefe, were, Captain Cook believes, never seen in the Greenland feas; at least, not that he ever heard or read of; fo that he cannot draw a comparison between the ice here and there.

The captain fays, "I will not fay it was impoffible any where to get farther to the fouth; but the attempting it would have been a dangerous and rafh enterprize, and what, I believe no man in my fituation would have thought of. I, who had ambition not only to go farther than any one had been before, but as far as it was poffible for man to go, was not forry at meeting with this interruption; as it in fome measure relieved us; at least, shortened the dangers and hardships infeparable from the navigation of the fouthern polar regions. Since therefore we could not proceed one inch farther to the fouth, no other reafon need be affigned for my tacking and standing back to the north." The captain now came to a refolution to proceed to the north, and to spend the enfuing winter within the tropic, if he met with no employment before he came there, as

he

he was now well fatisfied no continent was to be found in this ocean, but what must lie fo far to the south as to be totally inacceffible on account of ice; and that if one should be found in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, it would be neceffary to have the whole fummer before them to explore it.

They now fteered north, inclining to the east, and in the evening they were overtaken by a furious storm at weft-fouth-weft attended with fnow and fleet. It came fo fuddenly upon them, that before they could take in their fails, two old top-fails, which they had bent to the yards, were blown to pieces, and the other fails much damaged. On the 20th of February, as they advanced to the north, they felt a moft fenfible change in the weather. They fteered weft-fouth-weft, which they thought the moft probable direction to find land.

On the 25th, Captain Cook was taken ill of the bilious cholic, which was fo violent as to confine him to his bed; fo that the management of the fhip was left to Mr. Cooper, the firft officer, who conducted her much to his fatisfaction. It was feveral days before the most dangerous fymptoms of his diforder were removed; during which time Mr. Patten, the furgeon, was to him not only a fkilful physician, but an affectionate nurse. When he began to recover, a favourite dog belonging to Mr. Forfter fell a facrifice to his tender ftomach. They had no other fresh meat whatever on board; and the captain could eat of this flesh, as well as broth made of it, when he could tafte nothing elfe. Thus he received nourishment and strength from food which would have made most people in Europe fick; fo true it is, that neceffity is governed by no law.

At eight o'clock in the morning, on the 11th of March, land was feen from the mast-head, bearing weft, about twelve leagues diftant. They now tacked and endeavoured to get into what appeared to be a bay, on the weft fide of the point, or foutheaft fide of the island; but before this could be accomplished, night came upon them, and they flood on and off, under the land, till the next morning. This is called Easter Island, or Davis's Land.

When getting round the point, and coming before a fandy beach, they found foundings thirty and forty fathoms, fandy ground, and about one mile from the fhore. Here a canoe, conducted by two men, came off. They brought with them a bunch of plantains, which they fent into the fhip by a rope, and then they returned afhore. This gave the captain a good opinion of thefe iflanders, and infpired them with hopes of getting fome refreshments, of which they were in great want.

They continued to range along the coast, till they opened the northern point of the ifle. While the fhip was plying in, a native came on board. The first thing he did was to measure the length of the fhip, by fathoming her from the taffarel to the ftem; and as he counted the fathoms, they obferved that he called the numbers by the fame names that they do at Otaheite; nevertheless his language was nearly unintelligible to all of them.

Having anchored too near the edge of the bank, a fresh breeze from the land, about three o'clock the next morning, drove them off it; on which the captain went afhore, accompanied by fome of the gentlemen, to fee what the ifland was likely to afford. They landed at a fandy beach, where fome hundreds of the natives were affembled, and who were fo impatient to fee them, that many of them fwam off to meet the boats. Not one of them had fo much as a stick or weapon of any fort in his hand. After diftributing a few trinkets amongst them, they made figns for fomething to eat; on which they brought down a few potatoes, plantains, and fugar-canes, and exchanged them for nails, looking-glaffes, and pieces of cloth.

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They presently discovered that they were as expert thieves, and as tricking in their exchanges, as any people they had yet met with. It was with fome difficulty they could keep the hats on their heads; but hardly poffible to keep any thing in their pockets, not even what themselves had fold; for they would watch every opportunity to fnatch it from them, fo that they fometimes bought the fame thing two or three times over, and after all did not get it.

Before they failed from England, Captain Cook was informed that a Spanish ship had vifited this ifle in 1769. Some figns of it were seen among the natives; one man had a pretty good broad-brimmed European hat on; another had a jacket; and another a red filk handkerchief.

Near the place where they landed were fome tall ftatues, which fhall be defcribed hereafter. The country appeared quite barren, and without wood; there were nevertheless several plantations of potatoes, plaintains, and fugar-canes; they also saw some fowls, and found a well of brackish water. The ship was brought to an anchor in thirty-two fathoms water, about a mile from the nearest fhore.

The captain was obliged to content himself with remaining at the landing-place among the natives, as he was not yet quite recovered. They had a pretty brisk trade with them for potatoes, which they obferved they dug out of an adjoining plantation; but this traffic, which was very advantageous to them, was foon put a stop to, by the owner (as they supposed) of the plantation coming down and driving all the people out of it. By this they concluded, that he had been robbed of his property, and that they were not lefs fcrupulous of ftealing from one another than from them, on whom they practised every little fraud they could think on, and generally with fuccefs; for they had no fooner detected them in one, than they found out another. A party had been fent out in the morning to view the country, now returned. They had not proceeded far, before a middle-aged man, punctured from head to foot, and his face painted with a fort of white pigment, appeared with a spear in his hand, and walked alongside of them, making figns to his countrymen to keep at a distance, and not to moleft them. When he had pretty well effected this, he hoisted a piece of white cloth on his fpear, placed himself in the front, and led the way, with this enfign of peace. For the greatest part of the distance across, the ground had but a barren

appearance.

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On the eaft fide, near the fea, they met with three platforms of stone-work, or rather the ruins of them. On each had stood four of those large statues, but they were all fallen down from two of them, and also one from the third; all except one were broken by the fall, or in fome measure defaced. Mr. Wales measured this one and found it to be fifteen feet in length, and fix feet broad over the fhoulders. Each statue had on its head a large cylindric ftone of a red colour, wrought perfectly round. The one they measured, which was not by far the largeft, was fifty-two inches high, and fixty-fix in diameter. In fome the upper corner of the cylinder was taken off in a fort of concave quarter round; but in others the cylinder was entire.

Beyond this they came to the moft fertile part of the island they faw, it being interfperfed with plantations of potatoes, fugar-canes, and plantain-trees, and these not fo much incumbered with ftones as those they had feen before; but they could find no water except what the natives twice or thrice brought them, which, though brackish and stinking, was rendered acceptable by the extremity of their thirst. They also paffed fome huts, the owners of which met them with roafted potatoes and fugar-canes, and placing themselves a-head of the party (for they marched in a line in order to have the benefit of the path), gave one to each man as he paffed by. But at the very

time

time fome were relieving the thirsty and hungry, there were others who endeavoured to steal from them the very things which had been given them. At laft, to prevent worfe confequences, they were obliged to fire a load of fmall fhot at one who was fo audacious as to fnatch the bag which contained every thing they carried with them. The fhot hit him on the back, on which he dropped the bag, ran a little way and then fell; but he afterwards got up and walked, and what became of him they knew not, nor whether he was much wounded. This affair occafioned fome delay, and drew the natives together: they prefently faw the man who had hitherto led the way, and one or two more, coming running towards them; but instead of stopping when they came up, they continued to run round them, repeating in a kind manner a few words, until they fet forwards again. Then their old guide hoifted his flag, leading the way as before, and none ever attempted to fteal from them the whole day afterwards.

Towards the eastern end of the island they met with a well whofe water was perfectly fresh, being confiderably above the level of the fea; but it was dirty, owing to the filthinefs or cleanlinefs (call it which you will) of the natives, who never go to drink without washing themselves all over as foon as they have done; and if ever fo many of them are together, the first leaps right into the middle of the hole, drinks, and washes himself without the least ceremony; after which another takes his place and does the fame.

They obferved that this fide of the island was full of those gigantic statues before mentioned; fome placed in groupes on platforms of masonry; others fingle, fixed only in the earth, and that not deep; and thefe latter are, in general, much larger than the others. Having measured one which had fallen down, they found it very near twenty-feven feet long, and upwards of eight feet over the breast or shoulders; and yet this appeared confiderably fhort of the fize of one they faw standing its fhade, a little paft two o'clock, being fufficient to fhelter all the party, confifting of near thirty persons, from the rays of the fun. Mr. Wales, from whom Captain Cook had this information, is of opinion that there had been a quarry here, whence these stones had formerly been dug; and that it would have been no difficult matter to roll them down the hill after they were formed.

They faw not an animal of any fort, and but very few birds; nor indeed any thing which can induce fhips that are not in the utmost distress to touch at this island.

The Captain determined to leave the island the next morning, fince nothing was to be obtained that could make it worth his while to stay longer. They had a calm till ten o'clock in the morning of the 16th, when a breeze sprung up at weft, accompanied with heavy showers of rain, which lafted about an hour. The weather then clearing up, on the 16th of March, they got under fail, and stood to fea.

The produce of this island is sweet potatoes, yams, tara or eddy root, plantains, and fugar-canes, all pretty good, the potatoes efpecially, which are the beft of the kind they ever tafted. Gourds they have alfo, but so very few, that a cocoa-nut shell was the most valuable thing they could give them. They have a few tame fowls, such as cocks and hens, fmall but well tafted. They have also rats, which, it seems, they eat; for they faw a man with fome dead ones in his hand; and he seemed unwilling to part with them, giving them to understand they were for food. The coaft feemed not to abound with fifh; at least they could catch none with hook and line, and it was but very little they faw amongst the natives.

The inhabitants of this ifland do not seem to exceed fix or feven hundred fouls, and above two-thirds of those they saw were males. They either have but few females among them, or else many were restrained from making their appearance.

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