66 CAPTAIN COOK 



accepted the offer with delight. He immediately 

 took off the skin and laid it in his canoe, not 

 wishing to part with it till he had received the 

 cloth. Once he had got hold of this, he kept the 

 skin and put it and the cloth into a basket. Then, 

 with serene calm, he paddled away from the 

 ship. On the same day a party of natives cap- 

 tured Tayeto, Tupia's little servant, who hap- 

 pened to be in a boat, and dragged him into one 

 of their canoes. Cook had fire opened imme- 

 diately, and in the confusion which ensued the 

 child made his escape and swam back to the 

 Endeavour, Cook gave the place where this 

 happened the name of Cape Kidnapper. On 

 another occasion a native who had come on board 

 to trade saw several pieces of cloth drying at the 

 ship's side. As quietly as though he were per- 

 forming some household duty he took them 

 down, tied them in a bundle, and made off. 



Similar incidents were of frequent occurrence, 

 and Cook had the greatest difficulty in restrain- 

 ing the murderous instinct of his men, who, as 

 he says in his Journal, "showed the same eager- 

 ness to massacre these islanders as a huntsman 

 to kill game." As at Tahiti, he exacted from 

 them the strictest honesty in their dealings with 

 the New Zealanders. One day, some seamen 

 having broken down the fence of a native planta- 

 tion and taken some potatoes, he ordered twelve 



