1777* THE PACIFIC OCEAN. -3.59 



* 



The whole of this entertainment was conducted 

 with far better order, than could have been expected 

 in so large an assembly. Amongst such a multitude, 

 there must be a number of ill-disposed people; and 

 we hourly experienced it. All our care and atten- 

 tion did not prevent their plundering us, in every 

 quarter ; and that, in the most daring and insolent 

 manner. There was hardly any thing that they did 

 not attempt to steal; and yet, as the crowd was 

 always so great, I would not allow the sentries to 

 fire, lest the innocent should suffer for the guilty. 

 They once, at noon day, ventured to aim at taking 

 an anchor from off the Discovery's bows; and they 

 would certainly have succeeded, if the flook had not 

 hooked one of the chain-plates in lowering down 

 the ship's side, from which they could not disengage 

 it by hand ; and tackles were things they were un- 

 acquainted with. The only act of violence they were 

 guilty of, was the breaking the shoulder-bone of 

 one of our goats, so that she died soon after. This 

 loss fell upon themselves, as she was one of those 

 that I intended to leave upon the island; but of this, 

 the person who did it, was ignorant. 



Early in the morning of the 18th, an incident 

 happened, that strongly marked one of their customs. 

 A man got out of a canoe into the quarter gallery of 

 the Resolution, and stole from thence a pewter bason. 

 He was discovered, pursued, and brought along side 

 the ship. On this occasion, three old women, who 

 were in the canoe, made loud lamentations over the 

 prisoner, beating their breasts and faces in a most 

 violent manner, with the inside of their fists; and all 

 this was done without shedding a tear. This mode 

 of expressing grief is what occasions the mark which 

 almost all this people bear on the face, over the cheek 

 bones. The repeated blows which they inflict upon 

 this part, abrade the skin, and make even the blood 

 flow out in a considerable quantity; and when the 

 wounds are recent, they look as if a hollow circle had 



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