THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
299 
ventured to aim at taking an anchor from off the Difco- 
very’s bows; and they would certainly have fucceeded, if 
the flook had not hooked one of the chain plates in lower¬ 
ing down the fhip’s lide, from which they could not difen- 
gage it by hand ; and tackles were things they were unac¬ 
quainted with. The only act of violence they were guilty 
of, was the breaking the fhoulder bone of one of our 
goats, fo that fhe died foon after. This lofs fell upon them- 
felves, as fhe v r as one of thofe that I intended to leave 
upon the illand; but of this, the perfon who did it, was 
ignorant. 
Early in the morning of the 18th, an incident happened, 
that ftrongly marked one of their cuftoms. A man got out 
of a canoe into the quarter gallery of the Refolution, and 
ftole from thence a pewter bafon. He was difcovered, pur- 
fued, and brought along-lide the fhip. On this occalion, 
three old women, who were in the canoe, made loud la¬ 
mentations over the prifoner, beating their breafts and faces 
in a moft violent manner, with the infide of their lifts; and 
all this was done without fhedding a tear. This mode of 
exprefling grief is what oecalions the mark which almoft 
all this people bear on the face, over the cheek bones. The 
repeated blows which they inflicft upon this part, abrade the 
fkin, and make even the blood flow out in a conliderable 
quantity; and when the wounds are recent, they look as if 
a hollow circle had been burnt in. On many oecalions, 
they adtually cut this part of the face with an inftrument; 
in the fame manner as the people of Otaheite cut their 
heads. 
This day, I bellowed on Mareewagee fome prefents, in 
return for thofe we had received from him the day before; 
and as the entertainments which he had then exhibited for 
Q q % our 
1777 - 
Tune. 
Wedaef. iS. 
