202 CAPTAIN COOK 



men had constructed on the shore of the Sound. 

 These natives raised their huts with a rapidity 

 and skill which excited the admiration of Cook's 

 sailors, and they commenced a trade with the 

 latter in useful articles, bringing them fish and 

 vegetables in great quantity. 



Cook was anxious to elucidate, as far as pos- 

 sible, the circumstances in which the assassina- 

 tion of the Adventure's men had taken place. 

 Captain Furneaux had known very little about 

 it. He had sent a boat, manned by nine men 

 and an officer named Rowe, to look for plants in 

 the neighbourhood of Grass Cove. Since none 

 of these men had returned, Furneaux sent an ex- 

 pedition to see what had become of them. Lieu- 

 tenant Burney, who was the leader of this expe- 

 dition, found the horribly mutilated remains of 

 the ten men, remains which proved irrefutably 

 that the Englishmen, having been massacred, 

 had been eaten by the natives. This was all 

 that was known. Captain Furneaux had found 

 it impossible to ascertain the cause of the quarrel. 



The security which the New Zealanders now 

 felt, thanks to Cook's promise not to exact ven- 

 geance for the murder of his countrymen, soon 

 had the effect of loosening the tongues of the 

 natives. Cook went with a party to the scene of 

 the massacre, and, through the medium of Omai, 

 questioned the natives whom he found there, 



