246 cook's SECOND VOYAGE NOV. 



see how every method I have taken to stock this 

 country with sheep and goats has proved ineffectual. 



When I returned on board in the evening, I found 

 our good friends the natives had brought us a large 

 supply of fish. Some of the officers visiting them 

 at their habitations, saw among them some human 

 thigh-bones, from which the flesh had been but lately 

 picked. This and other circumstances led us to be- 

 lieve that the people whom we took for strangers this 

 morning, were of the same tribe ; that they had been 

 out on some war expedition ; and that those things 

 they sold us were the spoils of their enemies. In- 

 deed, we had some information of this sort the day 

 before ; for a number of women and children came 

 off to us in a canoe, from whom we learnt that a 

 party of men were then out, for whose safety they 

 were under some apprehension ; but this report 

 found little credit with us, as we soon after saw some 

 canoes come in from fishing, which we judged to be 

 them. 



Having now got the ship in a condition for sea,, 

 and to encounter the southern latitudes, I ordered 

 the tents to be struck and every thing to be got on 

 board. 



The boatswain, with a party of men, being in the 

 woods cutting broom, some of them found a private 

 hut of the natives, in which was deposited most of 

 the treasure they had received from us, as well as 

 some other articles of their own. It is very probable 

 some were set to watch this hut ; as, soon after it was 

 discovered, they came and took all away. But miss- 

 ing some things, they told our people they had stolen 

 them, and in the evening came and made their com- 

 plaint to me, pitching upon one of the party as the 

 person who had committed the theft. Having ordered 

 this man to be punished before them, they went away 

 seemingly satisfied, although they did not recover 

 any of the things they had lost, nor could I by any 

 means find out what" had become of them ; though 



