162 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



nails or more useful iron tools. Trade being thus stopped, 

 the Captain prepared to leave this place, and go where their 

 wants might be effectually relieved ; for after having been 

 nineteen weeks at sea, and living all the time on salt diet, 

 they could not but want some refreshments ; yet they had 

 not one sick man on board, owing to the many antiscorbutic 

 articles they had, and to the great attention of the surgeon. 



April the llth, at three o'clock in the afternoon, they 

 weighed. They had now but little wind, and that very 

 variable, with showers of rain. 



The Marquesas, which they had just left, were discovered 

 by Mendana, a Spaniard, and irom him obtained the general 

 name they now bear. They are five in number, viz., La 

 Magdalena, St. Pedro, La Dominica, Santa Christina, arid 

 Hood's Island, which is the northernmost ; La Dominica 

 is the largest. 



The inhabitants of these islands, collectively, are without 

 exception the finest race of people in this sea. For fine 

 shape and regular features, they perhaps surpass all other 

 nations. Nevertheless the affinity of their language to that 

 spoken in Otaheite and the Society Isles, show that they 

 are of the same nation. Oedidee could converse with them 

 tolerably well, and it was easy to see that their language 

 was nearly the same. 9 



The men, for the most part, have nothing to cover their 

 nakedness, except the Marra, as it is called at Otaheite ; 

 which is a slip of cloth passed round the waist and betwixt 

 the legs. This simple dress is quite sufficient for the 

 climate, and answers every purpose modesty requires. The 

 dress of the women is a piece of cloth, wrapped round the 

 loins like a petticoat, which reaches down below the middle 

 of the leg, and a loose mantle over their shoulders. 



In the article of eating, these people are by no means 

 so cleanly as the Otaheiteans. They are likewise dirty 

 in their cookery. Captain Cook says he saw them make 

 a batter of fruit and roots, diluted with water, in a vessel 

 that was loaded with dirt, and out of which the hogs had 

 been but that moment eating, without giving it the least 

 washing, or even washing their hands which were equally 

 dirty ; and when he expressed dislike, was laughed at. 



Hogs are the only quadrupeds they saw ; and cocks and 

 hens were the only tame fowls. However, the woods seem 

 to abound with small birds of a very beautiful plumage and 

 fine notes. 



With a fine easterly wind they steered till the 17th, when 

 land was seen bearing W. half N., which, upon a nearer 

 approach, they found to be a string of low islets connected 

 together by a reef of coral rocks. 



