52 cook's second voyage august, 



always have somewhat in return. I observed that 

 many were afraid to touch what belonged to us; 

 and they seemed to have no notion of exchanging 

 one thing for another. I took the old man, whose 

 name we now found to be Paowang, to the woods, 

 and made him understand, I wanted to cut down some 

 trees to take on board the ship ; cutting some down 

 at the same time, which we put into one of our boats, 

 together with a few small casks of water, with a view 

 of letting the people see what it was we chiefly 

 wanted. Paowang very readily gave his consent to 

 cut wood ; nor was there any one who made the least 

 objection. He only desired the cocoa-nut trees might 

 not be cut down. Matters being thus settled, we 

 embarked and returned on board to dinner, and, im- 

 mediately after, they all dispersed. I never learnt 

 that any one was hurt by our shot, either on this or 

 the preceding day; which was a very happy cir- 

 cumstance. In the afternoon, having landed again, 

 we loaded the launch with water, and having 

 made three hauls with the seine, caught upwards of 

 three hundred pounds of mullet and other fish. It 

 was some time before any of the natives appeared, 

 and not above twenty or thirty at last, amongst whom 

 was our trusty friend Paowang, who made us a pre- 

 sent of a small pig, which was the only one we got 

 at this isle, or that was offered us. 



During the night, the volcano, which was about four 

 miles to the west of us, vomited up vast quantities of 

 fire and smoke, as it had also done the night before ; 

 and the flames were seen to rise above the hill which 

 lay between us and it. At every eruption, it made 

 a long rumbling noise like that of thunder, or the 

 blowing up of large mines. A heavy shower of rain, 

 which fell at this time, seemed to increase it ; and 

 the wind blowing from the same quarter, the air was 

 loaded with its ashes, which fell so thick, that every 

 thing was covered with the dust. It was a kind of 



