174 COOK’s VOYAGE, 
flourifhing it over the bufy Portuguefe, who crouched like a 
fox to a lion, he made him, 'and the officer who commanded 
the party, fit down upon the ground behind him : the people, 
who, whatever were the crafty pretences of thefe iniquitous 
factors for a Dutch company, were eager to fupply us with 
vdiatever we wanted, and feemed alfo to be more defirous of 
goods than money, inftantly improved the advantage that 
had been procured them, and the market was flocked almolt 
in an inftant. To eflablifh a trade for buffaloes, however, 
which I mod wanted, I found it neceffary to give ten guineas 
for two, one of which weighed no more than a hundred and 
fixty pounds ; but I bought feven more much cheaper, and 
might afterwards have purchafed as many as I pleafed almofl 
upon my own terms, for they were now driven down to tire 
water-fide in herds. In the firft two that I bought fo dear, 
Lange had certainly a fhare, and it was in hopes to obtain 
part of the price of others, that he had pretended we mud 
pay for them in gold. The natives however fold what they 
afterwards brought down much to their fatisfa&ion, without 
paying part of the price to him as a reward for exadling mo- 
ney from us. Molt of the buffaloes that we bought, after our 
friend, the Prime Minifter, had procured us a fair market, 
were fold for a mufquet a piece, and at this price we might 
have bought as many as would have freighted our fhip. 
The refrelhments which we procured here, confided of nine 
buffaloes, fix fheep, three hogs, thirty dozen of fowls, a few 
limes, and fome cocoa-nuts ; many dozen of eggs, half of 
which however proved to be rotten ; a little garlic, and fe- 
veral hundred gallons of palm-fyrup. 
CHAP. XL 
particular Defcripticn cf the IJland of Sansu, its Produce and 
Inhabitants, * with a Specimen of their Language. 
T HIS ifland is called by the natives Savu ; the middle 
of it lies in about the latitude io° 35' S., longitude 237 0 
30' W. ; and has in general been fo little known that I never 
faw a map or chart in which it is clearly or accurately laid 
down. I have feen a very old one, in which it is called Sou, 
and confounded with Saudel Bofch. Rumphius mentions 
an ifland by the name of Saow ; and he alfo fays that it is the 
fame which the Dutch call Sandel Bofch ; but neither is this 
ifland, nor Timor, norRotte, nor indeed any one of theiflands 
that we have feen in thefe feas, placed within a reafonable 
diftance of its true fituation. It is about eight leagues long 
from 
