148 CAPTAIN COOK 



interests of Cook's health, the animal which he 

 so dearly loved. 



The state of health on board was far from 

 satisfactory: John Forster suffered from acute 

 rheumatism. Many members of the crew, ren- 

 dered weak by the execrable quality of the food, 

 were racked also with violent pains. It was high 

 time that the ship entered warmer latitudes. It 

 was thus among transports of delirious joy that 

 the Resolution on March nth arrived in sight 

 of Easter Island, which was the first land sighted 

 for three and a half months. Cook was aware 

 that this island was the land discovered by Davis 

 two centuries earlier. 



Easter Island presented a fantastic spectacle, 

 with its strange black columns standing along 

 the shore and its colossal statues. The country 

 was poor and the water bad. However, Cook 

 put in to secure bananas and vegetables. The 

 inhabitants, whose appearance and language 

 bore a certain resemblance to those of the Ta- 

 hitians, were of a pacific and hospitable disposi- 

 tion. Like the Tahitians, they had negative 

 ideas on the subject of property. They rum- 

 maged in the Englishmen's pockets, and ab- 

 stracted everything they could with the utmost 

 calmness. While Hodges was sitting on a 

 mound, drawing the landscape, an islander came 

 up to him and took off his hat. Another offered 



