THE'PACIFIC OCEAN. 211 



flefhy part of the belly, when any perfon was killed. This '778- 



_ , Ja,nuary, 



explained and confirmed the circumftance above-mentioned, < .r— ' 



of the perfon pointing to his belly. The man, however, 

 from whom we now had this information, being afked, if 

 his countrymen eat the part thus cut out ? denied it ftrong- 

 ly ; but, upon the queftion being repeated, fhewed fome 

 degree of fear, and fwam to his canoe. Juft before he 

 reached it, he made figns, as he had done before, expreflive 

 of the ufc of the inftrument. And an old man, who fat 

 forcmoft in the canoe, being then aflced, whether they eat 

 the flefli ? anfwered in the affirmative, and laughed, feem- 

 ingly at the fimplicity of fuch a queftion. He affirmed the 

 fadl, on being afked again ; and alfo faid, it was excellent 

 food, or, as he expreffed it, " favoury eating." 



At fcven o'clock in the evening, the boats returned, with 

 tv/o tons of water, a few hogs, a quantity of plantains, and 

 fome roots. Mr. King informed me, that a great number 

 of the inhabitants were at the watering or landing place. 

 He fuppofed, that they had come from all parts of the 

 iftand. They had brought v\^ith them a great many fine fat 

 hogs, to barter; but my people had not commodities with 

 them equal to the purchafe. This, however, was no great 

 lofs ; for we had already got as many on board, as we could 

 well manage for immediate ufe ; and, wanting the mate- 

 rials, we could not have falted them. Mr. King alfo told 

 me, that a great deal of rain had fallen afliore, whereas, out 

 at fea, we had only a few fhowers ; and that the furf had 

 run fo high, that it was with great difficulty our men 

 landed, and got back into the boats. 



We had light airs and calms, by turns, with fhowers of 

 rain, all niglit ; and at day-break, in the morning of the 

 24th, we found, that the currents had carried the fliip to Saturday 24. 



E c 2 the 



