152 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



months. When they were purchasing fish of these people, 

 they shewed a great inclination to pick pockets, and to 

 take away the fish with one hand, which they had just 

 sold or bartered with the other. This evil one of the chiefs 

 undertook to remove, and, with fury in his eyes, made a 

 show of keeping the people at a proper distance. The 

 Captain says, " I applauded his conduct, but at the same 

 time kept so good a look-out, as to detect him in picking 

 my pocket of a handkerchief, which I suffered him to put 

 in his bosom before I seemed to know anything of the 

 matter, and then told him what I had lost. He seemed 

 quite ignorant and innocent, till I took it from him ; 

 and then he put it off with a laugh, acting his part with 

 so much address, that it was hardly possible for me to 

 be angry with him ; so that we remained good friends, 

 and he accompanied me on board to dinner."* About that 

 time they were visited by several strangers in four or five 

 canoes. These new-comers took up their quarters in a 

 cove near the tents ; but very early the next morning 

 moved off with six small water casks, and with them all 

 the people they found here on their arrival. This precipi- 

 tate retreat of these last, they supposed, was owing to the 

 theft the others had committed. They left behind them 

 some of their dogs, and the boar that had been given them 

 the day before, which Captain Cook now took back again, 

 as he had not another. The casks were the least loss felt 

 by these people leaving them ; while they remained, they 

 were generally well supplied with fish, at a small expense. 



In unpacking the bread, they found 4,292 pounds totally 

 unfit to eat, and about 3,000 pounds more could only be 

 eaten by people in their situation. 



The 15th being a pleasant morning, a party went over to 

 East Bay, and climbed one of the hills which overlooked 

 the eastern part of the strait, in order to look for the 

 Adventure. They had a fatiguing walk to little purpose ; 

 for when they came to the summit, they found the eastern 

 horizon so foggy, that they could not see above two miles. 

 Mr. Forster, who was one of the party, profited by this 

 excursion in collecting some new plants. They now began 

 to despair of seeing the Adventure any more, and were 

 totally at a loss to conceive what had befallen her. 



Very early in the morning of the 22nd they were visited 

 by a number of the natives, in four or five canoes, very 

 few of whom they had seen before. They brought with 

 them various articles, which they bartered. At first 



* This thieving propensity among uncivilized man seems to be 

 universal, and particularly so among the various Esquimaux 

 tribes, who laugh in the same way when detected. 



