278 cook's voyage to april, 



that was towing overboard. At the same time, 

 they immediately showed a knowledge of bartering, 

 and sold some fish they had (amongst which was an 

 extraordinary flounder, spotted like porphyry ; and 

 a crame-coloured eel, spotted with black), for small 

 nails, of which they were immoderately fond, and 

 called them goore. But, indeed, they caught, with 

 the greatest avidity, bits of paper, or any thing else 

 that was thrown to them ; and if what was thrown 

 fell into the sea, they made no scruple to swim 

 after it. 



These people seemed to differ as much in person, 

 as in disposition, from the natives of Wateeoo ; 

 though the distance between the two islands is not 

 very great. Their colour was of a deeper cast; 

 and several had a fierce, rugged aspect, resembling 

 the natives of New Zealand ; but some were fairer. 

 They had strong black hair, which, in general, they 

 wore either hanging loose about the shoulders, or 

 tied in a bunch on the crown of the head. Some, 

 however, had it cropped pretty short ; and, in two 

 or three of them, it was of a brown, or reddish 

 colour. Their only covering was a narrow piece of 

 mat, wrapt several times round the lower part of 

 the body, and which passed between the thighs ; but 

 a fine cap of red feathers was seen lying in one of 

 the canoes. The shell of a pearl-oyster polished, 

 and hung about the neck, was the only ornamental 

 fashion that we observed amongst them ; for not one 

 of them had adopted that mode of ornament, so 

 generally prevalent amongst the natives of this 

 Ocean of puncturing, or talooing their bodies. 



Though singular in this, we had the most un- 

 equivocal proofs of their being of the same common 

 race. Their language approached still nearer to the 

 dialect of Otaheite, than that of Wateeoo, or Man- 

 geea. Like the inhabitants of these two islands, 

 they inquired from whence our ships came ; and 

 whither bound ; who was our chief; the number of 



