364 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



continued to make use of it whenever we could get materials 

 for brewing it. A few hops, of which we had some on 

 board, improved it much. It has the taste of new malt 

 beer ; and I believe no one will doubt of its being very 

 wholesome. Yet my inconsiderate crew alleged that it 

 was injurious to their health. 



" Every innovation whatever on board a ship, though 

 ever so much to the advantage of seamen, is sure to meet 

 with their highest disapprobation. Both portable soup 

 and sour krout were at first condemned as stuff unfit for 

 human beings. Few commanders have introduced into 

 their ships more novelties, as useful varieties of food and 

 drink, than I have done. It has, however, been in a great 

 measure owing to various little deviations from established 

 practice that I have been able to preserve my people, 

 generally speaking, from that dreadful distemper, the 

 scurvy, which has perhaps destroyed more of our sailors 

 in their peaceful voyages than have fallen by the enemy 

 in military expeditions. 



" I kept at some distance from the coast till the 

 13th, when I stood in again ; and, after having had 

 some trade with the natives who visited us, returned 

 to sea. 



" At daybreak a dreadful surf breaking upon the shore, 

 which was not more than half a league distant, it was 

 evident that we had been in the most imminent danger. 

 Nor were we yet in safety, the wind veering more easterly, 

 so that for some time we did but just keep our distance 

 from the coast. In the afternoon of the 20th, some of 

 the natives came off in their canoes, bringing with them 

 a few pigs and plantains. We continued trading with 

 the people till four in the afternoon, when having got a 

 pretty good supply, we made sail and stretched off to the 

 northward. 



" I had never met with a behaviour so free from reserve 

 and suspicion in my intercourse with any tribes of savages, 

 as we experienced in the people of this island. It was very 

 common for them to send up into the ship the several 

 articles they brought off for barter ; afterward, they would 

 come in themselves, and make their bargains on the 

 quarter-deck. The people of Otaheite, even after our 

 repeated visits, do not care to put so much confidence 

 in us. 



" On the 23rd, we tacked to the southward, and had hopes 

 of weathering the island. We should have succeeded if the 

 wind had not died away, and left us to the mercy of a 

 great swell which carried us fast toward the land, which 

 was not two leagues distant. At length some light puffs 



