to show the least surprise or distrust. Some of them now and then got up and said something after the manner of their first harangues; and one sung a very agreeable air, with a degree of softness and melody which we could not have expected, the word "haela' being often repeated as the burden of the song. The breeze which soon after sprung up bringing us nearer to the shore, the canoes began to come off in greater numbers; and we had at one time thirty-two of them near the ship, carrying from three to seven or eight persons each, both men and women. Several of these stood up in their canoes haranguing and making gestures after the manner of our first visitors. One canoe was remarkable for a singular head, which had a bird's eye and bill of an enormous size painted on it; and a person who was in it, who seemed to be a chief, was no less remarkable for his uncommon appearance, having many feathers hanging from his head, and being painted in an extraordinary manner. He held in his hand a carved bird of wood, as large as a pigeon, with which he rattled as the person first mentioned had done; and was no less vociferous in his harangue, which was attended with some expressive gestures. Though our visitors behaved very peaceably, and could not be suspected of any hostile intention, we could not prevail upon any of them to come on board. They showed great readiness, however, to part with anything they had, and took from us whatever we offered them in exchange; but were more desirous of iron than of any other of our articles of commerce, appearing to be perfectly acquainted with the use of that metal. Many of the canoes followed us to our anchoring-place; and a group of about ten or a dozen of them remained alongside the Resolution most part of the night. These circumstances gave us a reasonable ground of hope that we should find this a comfortable station to supply all our wants, and to make us forget the hardships and delays experienced during a constant succession of adverse winds and boisterous weather almost ever since our arrival upon the coast of America. BOOK IV. TRANSACTIONS AMONGST THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA; DISCOVERIES ALONG THAT COAST, AND THE EASTERN EXTREMITY OF ASIA, NORTHWARD TO ICY CAPE; AND RETURN SOUTHWARD TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. CHAPTER I. THE ships having happily found so excellent shelter in an inlet, the coasts of which appeared to be inhabited by a race of people whose inoffensive 1 Viscaino met with natives on the coast of California, while he was in the harbour of San Diego, who were painted or besmeared with black and white, and had their heads loaded with feathers. behaviour promised a friendly intercourse, the next morning, after coming to anchor, I lost no time in endeavouring to find a commodious harbour where we might station ourselves during our continuance in the sound. Accordingly I sent three armed boats under the command of Mr King upon this service; and soon after, I went myself in a small boat on the same search. I had very little trouble in finding what we wanted. On the north-west of the arm we were MAR. 1778.] ARTICLES BROUGHT TO BARTER. now in, and not far from the ships, I met with a convenient snug cove well suited to our purpose. Mr King was equally successful; for he returned about noon with an account of a still better harbour which he had seen and examined, lying on the north-west side of the land. But as it would have required more time to carry the ships thither than to the cove where I had been, which was immediately within our reach, this reason operated to determine my choice in favour of the latter situation. But being apprehensive that we should not be able to transport our ships to it, and to moor them properly, before night came on, I thought it best to remain where we were till next morning; and that no time might be lost, I employed the remainder of the day to some useful purposes, ordering the sails to be unbent, the top-masts to be struck, and the fore-mast of the Resolution to be unrigged, in order to fix a new bib, one of the old ones being decayed. A great many canoes filled with the natives were about the ships all day, and a trade commenced betwixt us and them which was carried on with the strictest honesty on both sides. The articles which they offered to sale were skins of various animals, such as bears, wolves, foxes, deer, racoons, polecats, martens, and in particular of the sea otters, which are found at the islands east of Kamtschatka. Besides the skins in their native shape, they also brought garments made of them, and another sort of clothing made of the bark of a tree, or some plant like hemp; weapons, such as bows, arrows, and spears; fish-hooks, and instruments of various kinds; wooden visors of many different monstrous figures; a sort of woollen stuff, or blanketing; bags filled with red ochre, pieces of carved work, beads, and several other little ornaments of thin brass and iron, shaped like a horse-shoe, which they hang at their noses, and several chisels or pieces of iron fixed to handles; from their possessing which metals, we could infer that they had either been visited before by some 721 civilised nation, or had connection with tribes on their continent who had communication with them. But the most extraordinary of all the articles which they brought to the ships for sale were human skulls and hands, not yet quite stripped of the flesh, which they made our people plainly understand they had eaten; and indeed some of them had evident marks that they had been upon the fire. We had but too much reason to suspect from this circumstance that the horrid practice of feeding on their enemies is as prevalent here as we had found it to be at New Zealand and other South Sea Islands. For the various articles which they brought they took in exchange knives, chisels, pieces of iron and tin, nails, looking-glasses, buttons, or any kind of metal. Glass beads they were not fond of, and cloth of every sort they rejected. We employed the next day in hauling our ships into the cove, where they were moored head and stern, fastening our hawsers to the trees on shore. On heaving up the anchor of the Resolution we found, notwithstanding the great depth of water in which it was let go, that there were rocks at the bottom. These had done some considerable damage to the cable, and the hawsers that were carried out to warp the ship into the cove also got foul of rocks, from which it appeared that the whole bottom was strewn with them. ship being again very leaky in her upper works, I ordered the carpenters to go to work to calk her, and to repair such other defects as on examination we might discover. The The fame of our arrival brought a great concourse of the natives to our ships in the course of this day. We counted above 100 canoes at one time, which might be supposed to contain at an average five persons each, for few of them had less than three on board, great numbers had seven, eight, or nine, and one was manned with no less than seventeen. Amongst these visitors many now favoured us with their company for the first time, which we could guess from their approach ing the ships with their orations and other ceremonies. If they had any distrust or fear of us at first, they now appeared to have laid it aside, for they came on board the ships and mixed with our people with the greatest freedom. We soon discovered by this nearer intercourse that they were as light-fingered as any of our friends in the islands we had visited in the course of the voyage. And they were far more dangerous thieves, for possessing sharp iron instruments, they could cut a hook from a tackle, or any other piece of iron from a rope, the instant that our backs were turned. A large hook weighing between twenty and thirty pounds, several smaller ones, and other articles of iron, were lost in this manner; and as to our boats, they stripped them of every bit of iron that was worth carrying away, though we had always men left in them as a guard. They were dextrous enough in effecting their purposes, for one fellow would contrive to amuse the boat-keeper at one end of a boat, while another was pulling out the iron-work at the other. If we missed a thing immediately after it had been stolen we found little difficulty in detecting the thief, as they were ready enough to impeach one another. But the guilty person generally relinquished his prize with reluctance, and sometimes we found it necessary to have recourse to force. The ships being securely moored, we began our other necessary business the next day. The observatories were carried ashore and placed upon an elevated rock on one side of the cove close to the Resolution. A party of men, with an officer, was sent to cut wood and to clear a place for the conveniency of watering. Others were employed to brew spruce-beer, as pinetrees abounded here. The forge was also set up to make the iron-work wanting for the repairs of the foremast. But, besides one of the bibs being defective, the larboard trestletree and one of the cross-trees were sprung. After a fortnight's bad weather, the 19th proving a fair day, we availed ourselves of it to get up the top-masts and yards, and to get up the rigging. And having now finished most of our heavy work, I set out the next morning to take a view of the sound. I first went to the west point, where I found a large village, and before it a very snug harbour, in which was from nine to four fathoms water over a bottom of fine sand. The people of this village, who were numerous, and to most of whom I was well known, received me very courteously; every one pressing me to go into his house, or, rather, his apartment, for several families live under the same roof. I did not decline the invitations, and my hospitable friends whom I visited spread a mat for me to sit upon, and showed me every other mark of civility. In most of the houses were women at work making dresses of the plant or bark before mentioned, which they executed exactly in the same manner that the New Zealanders manufacture their cloth. Others were occupied in opening sardines. I had seen a large quantity of them brought on shore from canoes, and divided by measure amongst several people, who carried them up to their houses, where the operation of curing them by smokedrying is performed. They hang them on small rods at first about a foot from the fire, afterward they remove them higher and higher to make room for others, till the rods on which the fish hang reach the top of the house. When they are completely dried, they are taken down and packed close in bales, which they cover with mats. Thus they are kept till wanted, and they are not a disagreeable article of food. Cod and other large fish are also cured in the same manner by them, though they sometimes dry these in the open air without fire. From this village I proceeded up the west side of the sound. For about three miles I found the shore covered with small islands, which are so situated as to form several convenient harbours, having various depths of water from thirty to seven fathoms, with a good bottom. Two leagues within the sound on this west side APRIL 1778.] BEHAVIOUR OF NATIVES AT THEIR VILLAGES. 723 there runs in an arm in the direction | he did not refuse them, they did not of NNW.; and two miles farther is another nearly in the same direction, with a pretty large island before it. I had no time to examine either of these arms, but have reason to believe that they do not extend far inland, as the water was no more than brackish at their entrances. A mile above the second arm I found the remains of a village. The logs or framings of the houses were standing, but the boards that had composed their sides and roofs did not exist. Before this village were some large fishing weirs, but I saw nobody attending them. These weirs were composed of pieces of wicker-work made of small rods, some closer than others, according to the size of the fish intended to be caught in them. These pieces of wicker-work (some of whose superficies are at least twenty feet by twelve) are fixed up edgewise in shallow water by strong poles or pickets that stand firm in the ground. Behind this ruined village is a plain of a few miles' extent, covered with the largest pinetrees that I ever saw. This was the more remarkable as the elevated ground on most other parts of this west side of the sound was rather naked. From this place I crossed over to the other, or east side of the sound, passing an arm of it that runs in NNE., to appearance not far. I now found, what I had before conjectured, that the land under which the ships lay was an island, and that there were many smaller ones lying scattered in the sound on the west side of it. Opposite the north end of our large island, upon the mainland, I observed a village, and there I landed. The inhabitants of it were not so polite as those of the other I had just visited. But this cold reception seemed in a great measure, if not entirely, owing to one surly chief, who would not let me enter their houses, following me wherever I went; and several times by expressive signs marking his impatience that I should be gone. I attempted in vain to soothe him by presents, but though alter his behaviour. Some of the young women, better pleased with us than was their inhospitable chief, dressed themselves expeditiously in their best apparel; and, assembling in a body, welcomed us to their village by joining in a song which was far from harsh or disagreeable. The day being now far spent, I proceeded for the ships round the north end of the large island, meeting in my way with several canoes laden with sardines which had been just caught somewhere in the east corner of the sound. When I got on board, I was informed that while I was absent the ships had been visited by some strangers in two or three large canoes, who by signs made our people understand that they had come from the south-east beyond the bay. They brought several skins, garments, and other articles, which they bartered. But, what was most singular, two silver table-spoons were purchased from them, which, from their peculiar shape, we supposed to be of Spanish manufacture. One of these strangers wore them round his neck by way of ornament. These visitors also appeared to be more plentifully supplied with iron than the inhabitants of the sound. The mizzen-mast being finished, it was got in and rigged on the 21st; and the carpenters were set to work to make a new fore-topmast to replace the one that had been carried away some time before. Next morning, about 8 o'clock, we were visited by a number of strangers in twelve or fourteen canoes. They came into the cove from the southward, and as soon as they had turned the point of it, they stopped and lay drawn up in a body above half-an-hour about 200 or 300 yards from the ships. At first we thought that they were afraid to come nearer, but we were mistaken in this, and they were only preparing an introductory ceremony. On advancing toward the ships, they all stood up in their canoes and began to sing. Some of their songs, in which the whole body joined, were in a slow and others in quicker time; and they accom panied their notes with the most regular motions of their hands, or beating in concert with their paddles on the sides of the canoes, and making other very expressive gestures. At the end of each song they remained silent a few seconds, and then began again, sometimes pronouncing the word "hooee!" forcibly, as a chorus. After entertaining us with this specimen of their music, which we listened to with admiration for above half-anhour, they came alongside the ships and bartered what they had to dispose of. Some of our old friends of the sound were now found to be amongst them, and they took the whole management of the traffic between us and the strangers, much to the advantage of the latter. Our attendance on these visitors being finished, Captain Clerke and I went in the forenoon with two boats to the village at the west point of the sound. When I was there the day before, I had observed that plenty of grass grew near it; and it was necessary to lay in a quantity of this as food for the few goats and sheep which were still left on board. The inhabitants received us with the same demonstrations of friendship which I had experienced before; and the moment we landed I ordered some of my people to begin their operation of cutting. I had not the least imagination that the natives could make any objection to our furnishing ourselves with what seemed to be of no use to them, but was necessary for us. However, I was mistaken; for, the moment that our men began to cut, some of the inhabitants interposed, and would not permit them to proceed, saying they must "makook," that is, must first buy it. I was now in one of the houses, but as soon as I heard of this I went to the field, where I found about a dozen of the natives, each of whom laid claim to some part of the grass that grew in this place. I bargained with them for it, and having completed the purchase, thought we were now at liberty to cut wherever we pleased. But here again it appeared that I was under a mis take, for the liberal manner in which I had paid the first pretended proprietors brought fresh demands upon me from others; so that there did not seem to be a single blade of grass, that had not a separate owner, and so many of them were to be satisfied that I very soon emptied my pockets. When they found that I really had nothing more to give, their importunities ceased, and we were permitted to cut wherever we pleased, and as much as we choose to carry away. Here I must observe that I have nowhere in my several voyages met with any uncivilised nation or tribe who had such strict notions of their having a right to the exclusive property of everything that their country produces, as the inhabitants of this sound. At first they wanted our people to pay for the wood and water that they carried on board; and had I been upon the spot when these demands were made, I should certainly have complied with them. Our workmen in my absence thought differently, for they took but little notice of such claims; and the natives, when they found that we were determined to pay nothing, at last ceased to apply. But they made a merit of necessity; and frequently afterwards took occasion to remind us that they had given us wood and water out of friendship.1 When we had completed all our operations at this village, the natives and we parted very good friends, and we got back to the ships in the after noon. The three following days were employed in getting ready to put to sea; the sails were bent; the observatories and instruments, brewing vessels, and other things were moved from the shore; some small spars for different 1 Similar to the behaviour of the natives of Nootka on this occasion was that of another tribe of Indians farther north, in Latitude 57° 18', to the Spaniards who had preceded Captain Cook only three years, in a voyage to explore the coast of America northward of California. |