THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
tended them no mifchief, and were defirous of renewing 
the intercourfe. It was natural that I iliould wifli to be 
prefent on the occalion. 
We had not been long landed, before about twenty of 
them, men and boys, joined us, without expreffing the 
lead: lign of fear or diftruft. There was one of this com¬ 
pany confpicuoully deformed ; and who was not more dif- 
tinguifhable by the hump upon his back, than by the drol¬ 
lery of his geftures, and the feeming humour of his 
fpeeches; which he was very fond of exhibiting, as we 
fuppofed, for our entertainment. But, unfortunately, we 
could not underhand him; the language fpoken here being 
wholly unintelligible to us. It appeared to me, to be dif¬ 
ferent from that fpoken by the inhabitants of the more 
northern parts of this country, whom I met with in my 
firft voyage; which is not extraordinary, lince thofe we 
now faw, and thofe we then vifited, differ in many other 
refpedts *. Nor did they feem to be fuch miferable 
» * 
* The moft ftriking difference feems to be with regard to the texture of the hair. 
The natives whom Captain Cook met with at Endeavour River in 1769, are faid, by 
him, to have naturally long and black hair , though it be universally cropped Jhort. In general 
it is Jlrait , but Sometimes it has a flight curl. TVe flaw none that was not matted and filthy. 
Their beards were ofi the flame colour with the hah\ and bujhy and thick. See Hawkefworth’s 
Collection, Vol. iii. chap. 8. p. 632. 
It may be neceflary to mention here, on the authority of Captain King, that Captain 
Cook was very unwilling to allow that the hair of the natives now met with in Adventure 
Bay was woolly , fancying that his people, who firft obferved this, had been deceived, from 
its being clotted with greafe and red ochre. But Captain King prevailed upon him after¬ 
ward, to examine carefully the hair of the boys, which was generally, as well as that of 
the women, free from this dirt; and then he owned himfelf fatisfied that it was naturally 
woolly. Perhaps we may fuppofe it poflible, that he himfelf had been deceived when he 
was in Endeavour River, from this very circumftance; as he exprefsly fays, that they flaw 
none that was not matted and filthy. 
O 2 
99 
* 777 - 
January, 
V— .~ v —- 
wretches 
