256 cook's voyage to april, 



tirely to themselves ; or if, at any time, they did not 

 hinder strangers from trading with us, they contrived 

 to manage the trade for them in such a manner that 

 the price of their commodities was always kept up, 

 while the value of ours was lessening every day. We 

 also found that many of the principal natives who 

 lived near us, carried on a trade with more distant 

 tribes, in the articles they had procured from us. 

 For we observed that they would frequently disap- 

 pear for four or five days at a time, and then return 

 with fresh cargoes of skins and curiosities, which our 

 people were so passionately fond of that they always 

 came to a good market. But we received most be- 

 nefit from such of the natives as visited us daily. 

 These, after disposing of all their little trifles, turned 

 their attention to fishing, and we never failed to par- 

 take of what they caught. We also got from these 

 people a considerable quantity of very good animal 

 oil, which they had reserved in bladders. In this 

 traffic some would attempt to cheat us, by mixing 

 water with the oil ; and, once or twice, they had the 

 address to carry their imposition so far as to fill their 

 bladders with mere water, without a single drop of 

 oil. It was alwavs better to bear with these tricks 

 than to make them the foundation of a quarrel ; for 

 our articles of traffic consisted, for the most part, of 

 mere trifles ; and yet we were put to our shifts to 

 find a constant supply even of these. Beads, and. 

 such other toys, of which I had some left, were in 

 little estimation. Nothing would go down with our 

 visitors but metal ; and brass had, by this time sup- 

 planted iron, being so eagerly sought after, that 

 before we left this place, hardly a bit of it was left 

 in the ships except what belonged to our necessary 

 instruments. Whole suits of clothes were stripped 

 of every button ; bureaus of their furniture ; and 

 copper kettles, tin cannisters, candlesticks, and the 

 like, all went to wreck ; so that our American friends 

 here got a greater medley and variety of things from 



