CHAPTER XVII. 



MADISON'SISLAND— ANIMALS— INSECTS— FISH— PRUri—BE^ 

 PARTURE FROM THE ISLAND— ARRIVAL AT VALPARAISO. 



The only quadrupeds we found on the island were hogs, 

 rats, cats, and dogs. Cats I did not see, but I was informed 

 they were to be found wild in the woods, where they had 

 retired from the dwellings of the natives. Of dogs I only 

 saw two, and they belonged to Mr. Maury and the people 

 with him. But I was informed there were one or two 

 more on the east side of the island ; neither of these ani- 

 mals appeared to be held in any kind of estimation by the 

 natives. The cats appeared familiar to them ; and they 

 are much afraid of the dogs, particularly the two large 

 mastiffs belonging to us. 



Agreeable to the tradition of Gattanewa, who is, perhaps, 

 the greatest historian among them, cats were first brought 

 to StT Christiana about forty years since by a god called 

 Hitahita, and thence some of the breed were brought in 

 canoes to this island. The people in the canoes, which 

 brought the cats, said that Hitahita came in a canoe, as 

 large as a small island ; they had never seen a vessel of 

 that description before, nor had they ever heard of one,^ 

 Thjs god they said killed a man, and from that circum- 

 staiite I am induced to believe that he could have been no 

 other than Captain Cook,* who anchored at that Island 

 with the Resolution in 1773, in the bay which he named 

 after his ship, — but which had before, in 1595, been called 

 by Mendana La Madre de Dios. — The day after he an- 

 chored, one of the natives endeavoured to carry off one of 

 the gang-way stanchions, and was shot in the act. This 

 circumstance is related in the account of captain Cook's 

 voyage, and the time agreeing so exactly with the tradi- 

 tions of the natives, there cannot be a doubt of his having 

 left the cats, although in this journal no mention is made 

 of his having done so. 



It seems very extraordinary that the natives of thai 



* Cook was at this time bound to Otaheita, and it is not improbable 

 that the frequent use of name of ihat island, among the crew of his 

 ships, the sound of which approaches so near to Hitahita, may be the 

 c-aiTse of his bearing this name. 



