264 cook's first voyage august, 



dance of the white party consisted of several ex- 

 pedients to steal it, and that of the brown party in 

 preventing their success. After some time, those 

 who had charge of the basket placed themselves 

 round it upon the ground, and, leaning upon it, 

 appeared to go to sleep ; the others, improving this 

 opportunity, came gently upon them, and lifting them 

 up from the basket, carried off their prize : the 

 sleepers, soon after awaking, missed their basket, but 

 presently fell a dancing, without any farther regard- 

 ing their loss ; so that the dramatic action of this dance 

 was, according to the severest laws of criticism, one, 

 and our lovers of simplicity would here have been 

 gratified with an entertainment perfectly suited to 

 the chastity of their taste. 



On the 9th, having spent the morning in trading 

 with the canoes, we took the opportunity of a breeze, 

 which sprung up at east, and having stopped our leak, 

 and got the fresh stock which we had purchased on 

 board, we sailed out of the harbour. When we were 

 sailing away, Tupia strongly urged me to fire a shot 

 towards Bolabola, possibly as a mark of his resent- 

 ment, and to show the power of his new allies : in 

 this I thought proper to gratify him, though we were 

 seven leagues distant. 



While we were about these islands, we expended 

 very little of the ship's provisions, and were very 

 plentifully supplied with hogs, fowls, plantains and 

 yams, which we hoped would have been of great use 

 to us in our course to the southward ; but the hogs 

 would not eat European grain of any kind, pulse, or 

 bread-dust, so that we could not preserve them alive ; 

 and the fowls were all very soon seized with a dis- 

 ease that affected the head so, that they continued to 

 hold it down between their legs till they died : much 

 dependence, therefore, must not be placed in live 

 stock taken on board at these places, at least not till 

 a discovery is made of some food that the hogs will 

 eat, and some remedy for the disease of the poultry. 



