78 cook's FIRST VOYAGE APRIL, 



pointed ; for as soon as we approached the rocks, 

 two of the men came down upon them to dispute our 

 landing, and the rest ran away. Each of the two 

 champions was armed with a lance about ten feet 

 long, and a short stick, which he seemed to handle as 

 if it was a machine to assist him in managing or 

 throwing the lance. They called to us in a very loud 

 tone, and in a harsh dissonant language, of which 

 neither we nor Tupia understood a single word: 

 they brandished their weapons, and seemed resolved 

 to defend their coast to the uttermost, though they 

 were but two, and we were forty. I could not but 

 admire their courage, and being very unwilling that 

 hostilities should commence with such inequality of 

 force between us, I ordered the boat to lie upon her 

 oars : we then parlied by signs for about a quarter of 

 an hour, and to bespeak their good-will, I threw 

 them nails, beads, and other trifles, which they took 

 up, and seemed to be well pleased with. I then made 

 signs that I wanted water, and, by all the means 

 that I could devise, endeavoured to convince them 

 that we would do them no harm. They now waved 

 to us, and I was willing to interpret it as an invitation ; 

 but upon our putting the boat in, they came again to 

 oppose us. One appeared to be a youth about 

 nineteen or twenty, and the other a man of middle 

 age : asI had now no other resource, I fired a mus- 

 ket between them. Upon the report, the youngest 

 dropped a bundle of lances upon the rock, but recol- 

 lecting himself in an instant, he snatched them up 

 again with great haste. A stone was then thrown at 

 us, upon which I ordered a musket to be fired with 

 small shot, which struck the eldest upon the legs, and 

 he immediately ran to one of the houses, which was 

 distant about an hundred yards. I now hoped that 

 our contest was over, and we immediately landed ; 

 but we had scarcely left the boat when he returned, 

 and we then perceived that he had left the rock only 

 to fetch a shield or target for his defence. As soon 



