

250 COOK S FIRST VOYAGE SEPT. 



liberty to trade with any other people, without 

 having first procured their consent, for which, how- 

 ever, he said, he would immediately apply to a 

 Dutchman who belonged to the company, and who 

 was the only white man upon the island. To this 

 man, who resided at some distance, a letter was 

 immediately dispatched, acquainting him with our 

 arrival and request : in the mean time, Mr. Gore 

 dispatched a messenger to me, with an account of 

 his situation, and the state of the treaty. In about 

 three hours, the Dutch resident answered the letter 

 that had been sent him, in person : he proved to be 

 a native of Saxony, and his name is Johan Christopher 

 Lange, and the same person whom we had seen on 

 horseback in a European dress : he behaved with 

 great civility to Mr. Gore, and assured him, that we 

 were at liberty to purchase of the natives whatever 

 we pleased. After a short time, he expressed a 

 desire of coming on board, so did the King also, 

 and several of his attendants : Mr. Gore intimated 

 that he was ready to attend them, but they desired 

 that two of our people might be left ashore as hos- 

 tages : and in this also they were indulged. 



About two o'clock, they all came aboard the ship, 

 and our dinner being ready, they accepted our invit- 

 ation to partake of it : I expected them immediately 

 to sit down, but the King seemed to hesitate, and at 

 last, with some confusion, said, he did not imagine 

 that we, who where white men, would suffer him, 

 who was of a different colour, to sit down in our 

 company ; a compliment soon removed his scruples, 

 and we all sat down together with great cheerfulness 

 and cordiality : happily we were at no loss for inter- 

 preters, both Dr. Solander and Mr. Sporing under- 

 standing Dutch enough to keep up a conversation 

 with Mr. Lange, and several of the seamen were able 

 to converse with such of the natives as spoke Portu- 

 guese. Our dinner happened to be mutton, and the 

 King expressed a desire of having an English sheep; 



