SECOND VOYAGE 189 



exchanged for nails, pieces of cloth, etc. Next day Mr. 

 Wales, accompanied by Lieutenant Clerke, went to make 

 preparations for observing the eclipse of the sun which was 

 to happen in the afternoon. 



This afternoon a fish being struck by one of the natives 

 near the watering-place, the Captain's clerk purchased it, 

 and sent it to him after his return on board. It was of a 

 new species, something like a sun-fish, with a large, long, 

 ugly head. Having no suspicion of its being of a poisonous 

 nature, they ordered it to be dressed for supper ; but, very 

 luckily, the operation of drawing and describing took up so 

 much time that it was too late, so that only the liver and 

 roe were dressed, of which the two Mr. Forsters and the 

 Captain did but taste. About three o'clock in the morning 

 they all found themselves seized with an extraordinary 

 weakness and numbness all over their limbs. The Captain 

 had almost lost the sense of feeling ; nor could he distin- 

 guish between light and heavy bodies, of such as he had 

 strength to move ; a quart pot full of water and a feather 

 being the same in his hand. They each of them took an 

 emetic, and after that a sweat, which gave them much relief. 

 In the morning, one of the pigs which had eaten the entrails 

 was found dead. When the natives came on board and saw 

 the fish hung up, they immediately gave them to under- 

 stand it was not wholesome food, and expressed the utmost 

 abhorrence of it, though no one was observed to do this 

 when the fish was to be sold, or even immediately after it 

 was purchased. 



In the afternoon of the 8th, the Captain received a 

 message acquainting him that Teabooma, the chief, was 

 come with a present consisting of a few yams and sugar- 

 canes. In return, he sent him, among other articles, a 

 dog and a bitch, both young, but nearly full-grown. The 

 dog was red and white, but the bitch was ail red, or the 

 colour of an English fox. The Captain says, he mentions 

 this, because they may prove the Adam and Eve of their 

 species in that country. 



In the evening of the llth the boats returned, when the 

 Captain was informed the cutter was near being lost, by 

 suddenly filling with water, which obliged them to throw 

 several things overboard before they could free her and 

 stop the leak she had sprung. From a fishing canoe, which 

 they met coming in from the reefs, they got as much fish 

 as they could eat ; and they were received by Teabi, the 

 chief of the isle of Balabea, with great courtesy. In order 

 not to be too much crowded, they drew a line on the ground, 

 and gave the natives to understand they were not to corne 

 within it. This restriction they observed, and one of them 



