280 cook's first voyage oct. 



this conversation, Tupia warned us to be upon our 

 guard, for that they were not our friends : we then 

 pressed them in our turn to come over to us ; and at 

 last one of them stripped himself, and swam over 

 without his arms : he was almost immediately fol- 

 lowed by two more, and soon after by most of the 

 rest, to the number of twenty or thirty ; but these 

 brought their arms with them. We made them all 

 presents of iron and beads ; but they seemed to set 

 little value upon either, particularly the iron, not hav- 

 ing the least idea of its use ; so that we got nothing 

 in return but a few feathers : they offered indeed to 

 exchange their arms for ours, and, when we refused, 

 made many attempts to snatch them out of our 

 hands. As soon as they came over, Tupia repeated 

 his declaration, that they were not our friends, and 

 again warned us to be upon our guard ; their at- 

 tempts to snatch our weapons, therefore, did not 

 succeed ; and we gave them to understand by Tupia, 

 that we should be obliged to kill them, if they offered 

 any farther violence. In a few minutes, however, 

 Mr. Green happening to turn about, one of them 

 snatched away his hanger, and retiring to a little dis- 

 tance, waved it round his head, with a shout of ex- 

 ultation : the rest now began to be extremely inso- 

 lent, and we saw more coming to join them from the 

 opposite side of the river. It was therefore become 

 necessary to repress them, and Mr. Banks fired at 

 the man who had taken the hanger, with small shot, 

 at the distance of about fifteen yards : when the shot 

 struck him, he ceased his cry ; but instead of return- 

 ing the hanger, continued to flourish it over his head, 

 at the same time slowly retreating to a greater dis- 

 tance. Mr. Monkhouse seeing this, fired at him 

 with ball, and he instantly dropped. Upon this the 

 main body, who had retired to a rock in the middle 

 of the river upon the first discharge, began to re- 

 turn ; two that were near to the man who had been 

 killed, ran up to the body, one seized his weapon of 



