158 cook's FIRST VOYAGE JULY, 



all of them were remarkably clean-limbed, and ex- 

 ceedingly active and nimble. One of these strangers 

 had a necklace of shells, very prettily made, and a 

 bracelet upon his arm, formed of several strings, so 

 as to resemble what in England is called gymp : 

 both of them had a piece of bark tied over the fore- 

 head, and were disfigured by the bone in the nose. 

 We thought their language more harsh than that of 

 the Islanders in the South Sea, and they were con- 

 tinually repeating the word chercau, which we 

 imagined to be a term expressing admiration, by 

 the manner in which it was uttered : they also cried 

 out, when they saw r any thing new, cher, tut, tut, 

 tut, tut! which probably had a similar significa- 

 tion. Their canoe was not above ten feet long, and 

 very narrow, but it was fitted with an outrigger, 

 much like those of the islands, though in every 

 respect very much inferior : when it was in shallow 

 water, they set it on with poles, and when in deep, 

 they worked it with paddles about four feet long : 

 it contained just four people, so that the people who 

 visited us to-day went away at two turns. Their 

 lances were like those that we had seen in Botany 

 Bay, except that they had but a single point, which 

 in some of them was the sting of the ray, and barbed 

 with two or three sharp bones of the same fish : it 

 it was indeed a most terrible weapon, and the in- 

 strument which they used in throwing it, seemed to 

 be formed with more art than any we had seen be- 

 fore. About twelve o'clock next day, the yawl re- 

 turned, with another turtle, and a large sting-ray, 

 and in the evening, was sent out again. 



The next morning, two of the Indians came on 

 board, but after a short stay, went along the shore, 

 and applied themselves with great diligence to the 

 striking" of fish. Mr. Gore, who went out this day 

 with his gun, had the good fortune to kill one of the 

 animals which had been so much the subject of our 

 speculation : an idea of it will best be conceived by 



