840 cook's first voyage jan. 



water very conveniently situated ; and, if a little care 

 was taken in filling it, we had reason to believe that 

 it would prove good. Just as we were going off, 

 some Indians, who remained with a canoe upon the 

 beach, sold us three turtle; but exacted a promise of 

 us that we should not tell the king. 



The next morning, while a party was employed in 

 filling water, we renewed our traffic for turtle: at first, 

 the Indians dropped their demands slowly, but about 

 noon they agreed to take the price that we offered, 

 so that before night we had turtle in plenty: the 

 three that we had purchased the evening before, 

 were in the mean time served to the ship's company, 

 who, till the day before, had not once been served 

 with salt provisions from the time of our arrival at 

 Savu, which was now near four months. In the 

 evening, Mr. Banks went to pay his respects to the 

 king, at his palace, in the middle of a rice-field, and 

 though his Majesty was busily employed in dressing 

 his own supper, he received the stranger very graci- 

 ously. 



The next day, the natives came down to the trad- 

 ing place, with fowls, fish, monkies, small deer, and 

 some vegetables, but no turtle; for they said that we 

 had bought them all the day before. The next day, 

 however, more turtle appeared at market, and some 

 were brought down every day afterwards, during our 

 stay, though the whole, together, was not equal to 

 the quantity that we bought the day after our arrival. 



On the 11th, Mr. Banks having learnt from the 

 servant whom he had hired at Batavia, that the In- 

 dians of this island had a town upon the shore, at 

 some distance to the westward, he determined to see 

 it; with this view he set out in the morning, ac- 

 companied by the second lieutenant, and as he had 

 some reason to think that his visit would not be 

 agreeable to the inhabitants, he told the people whom 

 he met, as he was advancing along the shore, that he 

 was in search of plants, which indeed was also true. 



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