1769' ROUND THE WORLD. 97 



who hoped, by his means, to have gratified his friends 

 in England with representations of this country and 

 its inhabitants, which no other person on board could 

 delineate with the same accuracy and elegance. He 

 had always been subject to epileptic fits, one of which 

 seized him on the mountains of Terra del Fuego, and 

 this disorder being aggravated by a bilious complaint 

 which he contracted on board the ship, at length put 

 an end to his life. It was at first proposed to bury 

 him on shore, but Mr. Banks thinking that it might 

 perhaps give offence to the natives, with whose cus- 

 toms we were then wholly unacquainted, we commit- 

 ted his body to the sea, with as much decency and 

 solemnity as our circumstances and situation would 

 admit. 



In the forenoon of this day we received a visit from 

 Tubourai Tamaide and Tootahah, our chiefs, from 

 the west : they brought with them, as emblems of 

 peace, not branches of plantain, but two young trees, 

 and would not venture on board till these had been 

 received, having probably been alarmed by the mis- 

 chief which had been done at the tent. Each of 

 them also brought, as propitiatory gifts, some bread- 

 fruit, and a hog ready dressed : this was a most ac- 

 ceptable present, as we perceived that hogs w^ere not 

 always to be got ; and in return we gave to each of 

 our noble benefactors a hatchet and a nail. In the 

 evening we went on shore and set up a tent, in which 

 Mr. Green and myself spent the night, in order to 

 observe an eclipse of the first satellite of Jupiter ; but 

 the weather becoming cloudy, we were disappointed. 



On the 18th, at day-break, I went on shore, with 

 as many people as could possibly be spared from the 

 ship, and began to erect our fort. While some were 

 employed in throwing up intrenchments, others were 

 busy in cutting pickets and fascines, which the na- 

 tives, who soon gathered round us as they had been 

 used to do, were so far from hindering, that many of 

 them voluntarily assisted us, bringing the pickets and 



VOL. I. H 



