236 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



" On the 25th of February we sailed from New Zealand, 

 and had no sooner lost sight of the land than our two young 

 adventurers repented heartily of the step they had taken. 

 All the soothing encouragement we could think of availed 

 but little. They wept both in public and private, and made 

 their lamentations in a kind of song, which was expressive of 

 their praises of their country. Thus they continued for 

 many days, but at length their native country and their 

 friends were forgot, and they appeared to be as firmly at- 

 tached to us as if they had been born amongst us. 



" On the 29th of March, as we were standing to the north- 

 east, the Discovery made the signal of seeing land, which 

 we soon discovered to be an island of no great extent. 



" On approaching the shore, we could perceive with our 

 glasses that several of the natives were armed with long 

 spears and clubs, which they brandished in the air with 

 signs of threatening, or, as some on board interpreted their 

 attitudes, with invitations to land. Most of them appeared 

 naked, except having a sort of girdle, which, being brought 

 up between the thighs, covered that part of the body. But 

 some of them had pieces of cloth of different colours, white, 

 striped, or chequered, which they wore as a garment 

 thrown about their shoulders ; and almost all of them had a 

 white wrapper about their heads, not much unlike a turban. 

 They were of a tawny colour, and of a middling stature. 



" At this time a small canoe was launched in a great hurry 

 from the further end of the beach, and putting off with two 

 men, paddled towards us, when I brought to. They stopped 

 short, however, as if afraid to approach, until Omai, who 

 addressed them in the Otaheitean language, in some 

 measure quieted their apprehensions. They then came near 

 enough to take some beads and nails, which were tied to a 

 piece of wood, and thrown into the canoe. Omai, perhaps 

 improperly, put the question to them, whether they ever ate 

 human flesh ? which they answered in the negative, with a 

 mixture of indignation and abhorrence. One of them, 

 whose name was Mourooa, being asked how he came by a 

 scar on his forehead, told us that it was the consequence of 

 a wound he had got in fighting with the people of an island 

 which lies to the north-eastward, who sometimes came to 

 invade them. They afterward took hold of a rope. Still, 

 however, they would not venture on board. 



" Mourooa was lusty and well made, but not very tall. 

 His features were agreeable, and his disposition seemingly 

 no less so ; for he made several droll gesticulations, which 

 indicated both good nature and a share of humour. His 

 colour was nearly of the same cast with that common to the 

 most southern Europeans. The other man was not so 



