kept strewing handfuls of feathers towards us; and some of his companions threw handfuls of a red dust or powder in the same manner. The person who played the orator, wore the skin of some animal, and held in each hand something which rattled as he kept shaking it. After tiring himself with his repeated exhortations, of which we did not understand a word, he was quiet; and then others took it, by turns, to say something, though they acted their part neither so long, nor with so much vehemence, as the other. We observed, that two or three had their hair quite strewed over with small white feathers; and others had large ones stuck into different parts of the head. After the tu multuous noise had ceased, they lay at a little distance from the ship, and conversed with each other in a very easy manner; nor did they seem to shew the least surprise or distrust. Some of them, now and then, got up, and said something after the manner of their first harangues; and one sung a very agreeable air, with a degree of softness and melody which we could not have expected; the word haela being often repeated as the burden of the song. The breeze which soon after sprung up, bringing us nearer to the shore, the canoes began to come off in greater numbers; and we had at one time thirty-two of them near the ship, carrying from three to seven or eight persons each, both men and women. Several of these stood up in their canoes, haranguing and making gestures, after the manner of our first visitors. One canoe was remarkable for a singular head, which had a bird's eye and bill, of an enormous size, painted on it; and a person, who was in it, who seemed to be a chief, was no less remarkable for his uncommon appearance; having many feathers hanging from his head, and being painted in an extraordinary manner." He held in his hand a carved bird of wood, as large as a pigeon, with which he rattled as the person first mentioned had done; • The natives of this coast, twelve degrees farther south, also brought feathers as presents to Sir Francis Drake on his arrival.-See an account of his voyage in Campbell's edit. of Harris, vol. i. p. 18-D. And in this collection, vol. x.-E. 7 Viscaino met with natives on the coast of California, while he was in the harbour of San Diego, who were painted or besmeared with black and white, and had their heads loaded with feathers.-History of California, vol. ii. p. 272.-D. done; and was no less vociferous in his harangue, which was attended with some expressive gestures. Though our visitors behaved very peaceably, and could not be suspected of any hostile intention, we could not prevail upon any of them to come on board. They shewed great readiness, however, to part with any thing they had, and took from us whatever we offered them in exchange, but were more desirous of iron than of any other of our articles of commerce; appearing to be perfectly acquainted with the use of that metal. Many of the canoes followed us to our anchoring-place; and a group, of about ten or a dozen of them, remained alongside the Resolution most part of the night. These circumstances gave us a reasonable ground of hope, that we should find this a comfortable station to supply all our wants, and to make us forget the hardships and delays experienced during a constant succession of adverse winds and boisterous weather, almost ever since our arrival upon the coast of America. CHAPTER IV. TRANSACTIONS AMONGST THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA; DISCOVERIES ALONG THAT COAST AND THE EASTERN EXTREMITY OF ASIA, NORTHWARD TO ICY CAPE; AND RETURN SOUTHWARD TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. SECTION I. The Ships enter the Sound, and moor in a Harbour.-Intercourse with the Natives.-Articles brought to barter.— Thefts committed.-The Observatories erected, and Carpenters set to work.-Jealousy of the Inhabitants of the Sound to prevent other Tribes having Intercourse with the Ships. Stormy and rainy Weather - Progress round the Sound. -Behaviour of the Natives at their Villages.-Their Manner of drying Fish, &c.-Remarkable Visit from Strangers, and introductory Ceremonies-A second Visit to one of the Villages. Leave to cut Grass, purchased.-The Ships sail. -Presents given and received at parting, THE ships having happily found so excellent shelter in an inlet, the coasts of which appeared to be inhabited by a race of people, whose inoffensive behaviour promised a friendly intercourse, the next morning, after coming to anchor, I lost no time in endeavouring to find a commodious harbour where we might station ourselves during our continuance in the Sound. Accordingly, I sent three armed boats, under the command of Mr King, upon this service; and soon after, I went myself, in a small boat, on the same search. I had very little trouble in finding what we wanted. On the N.W. of the arm we were now in, and not far from the ships, I met with a convenient snug cove well suited to our purpose. Mr King was equally successful; successful; for he returned about noon, with an account of a still better harbour, which he had seen and examined, lying on the N W. side of the land. But as it would have required more time to carry the ships thither, than to the cove where I had been, which was immediately within our reach, this reason operated to determine my choice in favour of the latter situation. But being apprehensive, that we should not be able to transport our ships to it, and to moor them properly, before night came on, I thought it best to remain where we were till next morning; and, that no time might be lost, I employed the remainder of the day to some useful purposes, ordering the sails to be unbent, the top-masts to be struck, and the fore-mast of the Resolution to be unrigged, in order to fix a new bib, one of the old ones being decayed. A great many canoes, filled with the natives, were about the ships all day, and a trade commenced betwixt us and them, which was carried on with the strictest honesty on both sides. The articles which they offered to sale were skins of various animals, such as bears, wolves, foxes, deer, rackoons, pole-cats, martins, and, in particular, of the seaotters, which are found at the islands E. of Kamtschatka. Besides the skins in their native shape, they also brought garments made of them, and another sort of cloathing made of the bark of a tree, or some plant like hemp; weapons, such as bows, arrows, and spears; fish-hooks, and instruments of various kinds; wooden-vizors of many different monstrous figures; a sort of woollen stuff, or blanketing; bags filled with red ochre; pieces of carved work, beads, and several other little ornaments of thin brass and iron, shaped like a horse-shoe, which they hang at their noses; and several chisels, or pieces of iron, fixed to handles. From their possessing which metals, we could infer that they had either been visited before by some civilized nation, or had connections with tribes on their continent, who had communication with them. But the most extraordinary of all the articles which they brought to the ships for sale, were human skulls, and hands not yet quite stripped of the flesh, which they made our people plainly understand they had eaten; and, indeed, some of them had evident marks that they had been upon the fire. We had but too much reason to suspect, from this circumstance, that the horrid practice of feeding on their enemies is as preva lent lent here, as we had found it to be at New Zealand and other South Sea Islands. For the various articles which they brought, they took in exchange knives, chisels, pieces of iron and tin, nails, looking-glasses, buttons, or any kind of metal. Glass-beads they were not fond of, and cloth of every sort they rejected. We employed the next day in hauling our ships into the cove, where they were moored head and stern, fastening our hawsers to the trees on shore. On heaving up the anchor of the Resolution, we found, notwithstanding the great depth of water in which it was let go, that there were rocks at the bottom. These had done some considerable damage to the cable; and the hawsers that were carried out to warp the ship into the cove also got foul of rocks, from which it appeared that the whole bottom was strewed with them. The ship being again very leaky in her upper works, I ordered the carpenters to go to work to caulk her, and to repair such other defects as, on examination, we might dis cover. The fame of our arrival brought a great concourse of the natives to our ships in the course of this day. We counted above a hundred canoes at one time, which might be supposed to contain, at an average, five persons each; for few of them had less than three on board; great numbers had seven, eight, or nine, and one was manned with no less than seventeen. Amongst these visitors, many now favoured us with their company for the first time, which we could guess, from their approaching the ships with their orations and other ceremonies. If they had any distrust or fear of us at first, they now appeared to have laid it aside; for they came on board the ships, and mixed with our peo ple with the greatest freedom. We soon discovered, by this nearer intercourse, that they were as light-fingered as of our friends in the islands we had visited in the course of the voyage. And they were far more dangerous thieves; for, possessing sharp iron-instruments, they could cut a hook from a tackle, or any other piece of iron from a rope, the instant that our backs were turned. A large hook, weighing between twenty and thirty pounds, several smaller ones, and other articles of iron, were lost in this manner. And, as to our boats, they stripped them of every bit of iron that was worth carrying away, though we had always men left in them as a guard. They were dexterous enough any VOL. XVI. |