THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
209 
to the firing of one of them, which he feparated with t? 7 s. 
great care, and referved for himfelf, when he parted with J anuar y- 
the hook. Being afked, what it was ? He pointed to his 
belly, and fpoke fomething of its being dead; at the fame 
time faying, it was bad; as if he did not wifh to anfwer 
any more queftions about it. On feeing him fo anxious to 
conceal the contents of this parcel, he was requelled to open 
it, which he did with great reluctance, and fome difficulty, 
as it was wrapped up in many folds of cloth. We found, 
that it contained a thin bit of fleffi, about two inches long, 
which, to appearance, had been dried, but was now wet 
with fait water. It ftruck us, that it might be human fleffi, 
and that thefe people might, perhaps, eat their enemies; as 
we knew, that this was the practice of fome of the natives 
of the South Sea illands. The queflion being put to the 
perfon who produced it, he anfwered, that the fiefh was 
part of a man. Another of his countrymen, who flood by 
him, was then afked, whether it was their cuflom to eat 
thofe killed in battle ? and he immediately anfwered in the 
affirmative. 
There were fome intervals of fair weather in the after¬ 
noon ; and the wind then inclined to the Eafl and North 
Eaft; but, in the evening, it veered back again to South 
South Eafl, and the rain alfo returned, and continued all 
night. Very luckily, it was not attended with much 
wind. We had, however, prepared for the worft, by drop¬ 
ping the fmall bower anchor; and flriking our top-gallant- 
yards. 
At feven o’clock, the next morning, a breeze of wind Friday z 3 , 
lpringing up at North Eafl, I took up the anchors, with a 
view of removing the ffiip farther out. The moment that 
the lafl anchor was up, the wind veered to the Eafl, which 
Vol. II. E e made 
