280 cook's second voyage march, 



he did after coming aboard, was to measure the 

 length of the ship, by fathoming her from the tafferel 

 to the stern ; and as he counted the fathoms, we ob- 

 served that he called the numbers by the same names 

 that they do at Otaheite ; nevertheless, his language 

 was in a manner wholly unintelligible to all of us. 



Having anchored too near the edge of the bank, 

 a fresh breeze from the land, about three o'clock the 

 next morning, drove us off it ; on which the anchor 

 was heaved up, and sail made to regain the bank 

 again. While the ship was plying in, I went ashore, 

 accompanied by some of the gentlemen, to see what 

 the island was likely to afford us. We landed at the 

 sandy beach, where some hundreds of the natives 

 were assembled, and who were so impatient to see 

 us, that many of them swam off to meet the boats. 

 Not one of them had so much as a stick or weapon 

 of any sort in their hands. After distributing a few 

 trinkets amongst them, we made signs for something 

 to eat ; on which they brought down a few potatoes, 

 plantains, and sugar-canes, and exchanged them for 

 nails, looking-glasses, and pieces of cloth. 



We presently discovered that they were as expert 

 thieves, and as tricking in their exchanges, as any 

 people we had yet met with. It was with some dif- 

 ficulty we could keep the hats on our heads, but 

 hardly possible to keep any thing in our pockets, not 

 even what themselves had sold us ; for they would 

 watch every opportunity to snatch it from us, so that 

 we sometimes bought the same thing two or three 

 times over, and after all did not get it. 



Before I sailed from England, I was informed that 

 a Spanish ship had visited this isle in 1769. Some 

 signs of it were seen among the people now about 

 us ; one man had a pretty good broad-brimmed 

 European hat on, another had a grego jacket, and 

 another a red silk handkerchief. They also seemed 

 to know the use of a musket, and to stand in much awe 

 of it ; but this they probably learnt from Roggewin, 



