342 cook's first voyage jan. 



We went on shore in the evening, to see how the 

 people who were employed in wooding and watering 

 went on, and were informed that an axe had been 

 stolen. As the passing over this fault might en- 

 courage the commission of others of the same kind, 

 application was immediately made to the king, who, 

 after some altercation, promised that the axe should 

 be restored in the morning; and kept his word, for it 

 was brought to us by a man who pretended that the 

 thief, being afraid of a discovery, had privately 

 brought it and left it at his house in the night. 



We continued to purchase between two and three 

 hundred weight of turtle in a day, besides fowls and 

 other necessaries; and, in the evening of the 13th, 

 having nearly completed our wood and water, Mr. 

 Banks went ashore to take leave of his Majesty, to 

 whom he had made several trifling presents, and at 

 parting gave him two quires of paper, which he gra- 

 ciously received. They had much conversation, in 

 the course of which his Majesty inquired, why the 

 English did not touch there as they had been used to 

 do. Mr. Banks replied, that he supposed it was be- 

 cause they found a deficiency of turtle, of which 

 there not being enough to supply one ship, many 

 could not be expected. To supply this defect, he 

 advised his Majesty to breed cattle, buffaloes, and 

 sheep, a measure which he did not seem much in- 

 clined to adopt. 



On the 14th we made ready to sail, having on 

 board a good stock of refreshments, which we pur- 

 chased of the natives, consisting of turtle, fowl, fish, 

 two species of deer, one as big as a sheep, the other 

 not larger than a rabbit ; with cocoa-nuts, plantains, 

 limes, and other vegetables. The deer however 

 served only for present use, for we could seldom 

 keep one of them alive more than four-and-twenty 

 hours after it was on board. On our part, the trade 

 was carried on chiefly with Spanish dollars, the na- 

 tives seeming to set little value upon any thing else. 



