1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 377 



Tupia, chiefly concerning the traditions they had 

 among them with respect to the antiquities of their 

 country. To this subject they were led by the in- 

 quiries which Tupia had been directed to make, 

 whether they had ever seen such a vessel as ours, or 

 had ever heard that any such had been upon their 

 coast. These inquiries were all answered in the 

 negative, so that tradition has preserved among them 

 no memorial of Tasman ; though, by an observation 

 made this day, we find that we are only fifteen miles 

 south of Murderer's Bay, our latitude being 41® 

 5' S2'\ and Murderer's Bay, according to his account, 

 being 40° 50\ 



The women in these canoes, and some of the men, 

 had a head-dress which we had not before seen. It 

 consisted of a bunch of black feathers, made up in a 

 round form, and tied upon the top of the head, 

 which it entirely covered, and made it twice as high, 

 to appearance, as it was in reality. 



After dinner I went in the pinnace with Mr. 

 Banks, Dr. Solander, Tupia, and some others, into 

 another cove, about two miles distant from that in 

 which the ship lay : in our way we saw something 

 floating upon the water, which we took for a dead 

 seal, but upon rowing up to it, found it to be the 

 body of a woman, which, to all appearance, had been 

 dead some days. We proceeded to our cove, where 

 we went on shore, and found a small family of 

 Indians, who appeared to be greatly terrified at our 

 approach, and all ran away except one. A convers- 

 ation between this person and Tupia soon brought 

 back the rest, except an old man and a child, who 

 still kept aloof, but stood peeping at us from the 

 woods. Of these people, our curiosity naturally led 

 us to enquire after the body of the woman, which we 

 had seen floating upon the water: and they ac- 

 quainted us, by Tupia, that she was a relation, who 

 had died a natural death ; and that, according to 

 their custom, they had tied a stone to the body. 



