THIRD VOYAGE 313 



sixpenny nail, so that we again found ourselves in a land 

 of plenty. 



"The next morning we stood in for the land, and were 

 met by several canoes filled with people, some of whom took 

 courage and ventured on board. 



" In the course of my several voyages I never before met 

 with the natives of any place so much astonished as these 

 people were upon entering a ship. Their eyes were con- 

 tinually flying from object to object the wildness of their 

 looks and gestures fully expressing their entire ignorance 

 about everything they saw, and strongly marking to us that 

 till now they had never been visited by Europeans, nor been 

 acquainted* with any of our commodities except iron, which, 

 however, it was plain they had only heard of, or had known 

 it ir, some small quantity, brought to them at some distant 

 period They seemed only to understand that it was a 

 substance much better adapted to the purposes of cutting 

 or cf boring holes than anything their own country produced 

 They asked for it by the name of hamaite, probably referring 

 to some instrument, in the making of which iron could be 

 usefully employed. For the same reason they frequently 

 called iron by the name of toe, which, in their language, 

 signifies a hatchet, or rather a kind of adze. When we 

 shewed them some beads, they asked first what they were, 

 and then whether they should eat them. But on their being 

 told that they were to be hung in their ears, they returned 

 them as useless. They were equally indifferent as to a 

 looking-glass which was offered them, and returned it for 

 the same reason, but sufficiently expressed their desire 

 for hamaite and toe, which they wished might be very 

 large. They were in some respects naturally well-bred, or 

 at least fearful of giving offence, asking where they should 

 sit down, whether they might spit upon the deck, and the 

 like. Some of them repeated a long prayer before they 

 came on board, and other afterwards sung and made 

 motions with their hands, such as we had been accustomed 

 to see in the dance of the islands we had lately visited. 

 There was another circumstance in which they also'perfectly 

 resembled those other islanders. At first on their entering 

 the ship they endeavoured to steal everything they came 

 *near, or rather to take it openly, as what we either should 

 not resent or not hinder. We soon convinced them of their 

 mistake ; and if they after some time became less active 

 in appropriating to themselves whatever they took a fancy 

 to, it was because they found that we kept a watchful 

 eye over them. 



" At nine o'clock, being pretty near to the shore, I sent 



Kiree armed boats, under the command of Lieutenant 



