38S cook's first voyage jan. 



and sharp pieces of talc or jaspar, in a terrible man- 

 ner. Our people understood that their husbands 

 had lately been killed by their enemies: but, while 

 they were performing this horrid ceremony, the men 

 set about repairing the huts, with the utmost negli- 

 gence and unconcern. 



The carpenter having prepared two posts to be 

 left as memorials of our having visited this place, I 

 ordered them to be inscribed with the ship's name, 

 and the year and month : one of them I set up at 

 the watering-place, hoisting the Union-flag upon the 

 top of it ; and the other I carried over to the island 

 that lies nearest to the sea, called by the natives 

 MoTUARA. I went first to the village or hippah, 

 accompanied by Mr. Monkhouse and Tupia, where 

 I met with our old man, and told him and several 

 others, by means of Tupia, that we were come to set 

 up a mark upon the island, in order to show to any 

 other ship which should happen to come thither, that 

 we had been there before. To this they readily con- 

 sented, and promised that they never would pull it 

 down : I then gave something to every one present ; 

 and to the old man I gave a silver three-pence, dated 

 1736, and some spike-nails, with the king's broad 

 arrow cut deep upon them ; things which I thought 

 most likely to remain long among them : I then took 

 the post to the highest part of the island, and, after 

 fixing it firmly in the ground, I hoisted upon it the 

 Union-flag, and honoured this inlet with the name 

 of Queen Charlotte's Sound; at the same time tak- 

 ing formal possession of this and the adjacent country, 

 in the name and for the use of his Majesty King 

 George the Third. We then drank a bottle of wine 

 to her Majesty's health, and gave the bottle to the 

 old man who had attended us up the hill, and who 

 was mightily delighted with his present. 



While the post was setting up, we enquired of the 

 old man concerning the passage into the eastern sea, 

 the existence of which he confirmed ; and then asked 

 him about the land to the S. W. of the streight, where 



