128 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



" On the 4tli, early in the morning, we were visited by several canoes ; 

 the people in them, about 185 in number, had a few arms, but seemed 

 unresolved what to do. At last they traded with us, exchanging the few 

 trifles they had brought for cloth. They were very sly, and attempted to 

 cheat us. We fired several muskets at them, and wounded two of them ; 

 the rest, however, did not seem to be alarmed till the captain shot through 

 one of the canoes, which struck them with a panic, and on firing a great 

 gun they made off to land. 



" On the 9th, a great number of the natives came in canoes about the 

 ship and brought us a large quantity of fish, mostly of the mackerel kind, 

 with a few John Dories, and we pickled down several casks full of them. 

 Some of these canoes came from another part of the country, which were 

 larger and of a better sort than the rest ; the people in them, too, had a 

 better appearance ; ^among whom were some of superior rank, furnished 

 with good garments, dressed up with feathers on their heads, and had 

 various things of value amongst them which they readily exchanged for 

 Otaheite cloth. In one of the canoes there was a very handsome young 

 man of whom I bought some things ; he seemed by the variety of his 

 garments, which he sold one after another till he had but one left, to be a 

 person of distinction among them ; his last garment was an upper one, 

 made of black and white dogskin, which one of the lieutenants would have 

 purchased, and offered him a large piece of cloth for it, which he swung 

 down the stern by a rope into the canoe ; but as soon as the young man 

 had taken it, his companions paddled away as fast as possible, shouting and 

 brandishing their weapons as if they had made a great prize, and, being 

 ignorant of the power of our weapons, thought to have carried it off 

 securely ; but a musket was fired at them from the stern of the ship ; the 

 young man fell down immediately, and, it is probable, was mortally 

 wounded, as we did not see him rise again. What a severe punishment of 

 a crime committed, perhaps, ignorantly ! The name of this unfortunate 

 man, we afterwards learned, was Te Eiunui. 



" The wind having been against us for several days, and as we could get 

 no farther with our heavy ship, on the 29th in the morning, having weathered 

 a long point of land, which we named Cape Brett, we bore away to leeward, 

 got into a very large harbour where we were land-locked, and had several 

 pretty coves on every side of us. We passed a small island which we named 

 Piercy Island, and soon after cast anchor. Many canoes came off to us, and 

 the people in them, according to custom, behaved somewhat unruly. While 

 I saluted one of them, in their manner, he picked my pocket. Some of our 

 people fired upon them, but they did not seem to regard it much. One of 

 our boats went on shore, and then they set off all at once and attempted to 



