286 cook's first voyage oct. 



to about two hundred : as we now despaired of making 

 peace with them, seeing that the dread of our small 

 arms did not keep them at a distance, and that the 

 ship was too far off to reach the place with a shot, 

 we resolved to re-imbark, lest our stay should em- 

 broil us in another quarrel, and cost more of the In- 

 dians their lives. We therefore advanced towards 

 the pinnace, which was now returning, when one of 

 the boys suddenly cried out, that his uncle was among 

 the people who had marched down to us, and desired 

 us to stay and talk with them : we complied, and a 

 parley immediately commenced between them and 

 Tupia ; during which the boys held up every thing 

 we had given them as tokens of our kindness and li- 

 berality ; but neither would either of the boys swim 

 over to them, or any of them to the boys. The body 

 of the man who had been killed the day before, still 

 lay exposed upon the beach ; the boys seeing it lie 

 very near us, went up to it, and covered it with some 

 of the clothes that we had given them ; and soon after 

 a single man, unarmed, who proved to be the uncle 

 of Maragovete, the youngest of the boys, swam over 

 to us, bringing in his hand a green branch, which 

 we supposed, as well here as at Otaheite, to be an 

 emblem of peace. We received his branch by the 

 hands of Tupia, to whom he gave it, and made him 

 many presents ; we also invited him to go on board 

 the ship, but he declined it ; we therefore left him, 

 and expected that his nephew, and the two other 

 young Indians would have staid with him, but to our 

 great surprise, they chose rather to go with us. As 

 soon as we had retired, he went and gathered another 

 green branch, and w^ith this in his hand, he ap- 

 proached the dead body which the youth had co- 

 vered with part of his clothes, walking sideways, 

 with many ceremonies, and then throwing it towards 

 him. When this was done, he returned to his com- 

 panions, who had sat down upon the sand to observe 



