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; wea pons, 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 num bers 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 any 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 then left in them as a guard. They were dexterous enough, VOL. XVI. in effecting their purposes; for one fellow would contrive to amuse the boat-keeper, at one end of a boat, while another was pulling out the iron-work at the other. If we missed a thing immediately after it had been stolen, we found little difficulty in detecting the thief, as they were ready enough to impeach one another. But the guilty person generally relinquished his prize with reluctance, and sometimes we found it necessary to have recourse to force. The ships being securely moored, we began our other necessary business the next day. The observatories were carried ashore, and placed upon an elevated rock on one side of the cove, close to the Resolution. A party of men, with an officer, was sent to cut wood, and to clear a place for the conveniency of watering. Others were employed to brew spruce-beer, as pine-trees abounded here. The forge was also set up, to make the iron-work wanting for the repairs of the fore-mast. For, besides one of the bibs being defective, the larboard trestle-tree and one of the cross-trees were sprung. A considerable number of the natives visited us daily; and every now and then we saw new faces. On their first coming, they generally went through a singular mode of introducing themselves. They would paddle, with all their strength, quite round both ships, a chief, or other principal person in the canoe, standing up with a spear, or some other weapon, in his hand, and speaking, or rather hollowing, all the time. Sometimes the orator of the canoe would have his face covered with a mask, representing either a human visage, or that of some animal; and, instead of a weapon, would hold a rattle in his hand, as before described. After making this circuit round the ships, they would come alongside, and begin to trade without further ceremony. Very often, indeed, they would first give us a song, in which all in the canoe joined, with a very pleasing harmony. During these visits, they gave us no other trouble than to guard against their thievish tricks. But, in the morning of the 4th, we had a serious alarm. Our party on shore, who were employed in cutting wood, and filling water, observed, that the natives all around them were arming themselves in the best manner they could; those, who were not possessed of proper weapons, preparing sticks, and collect ing stones. On hearing this, I thought it prudent to arm also; also; but, being determined to act upon the defensive, I' ordered all our workmen to retreat to the rock, upon which we had placed our observatories, leaving the natives in quiet possession of the ground where they had assembled," which was within a stone's throw of the Resolution's stern. Our fears were ill-grounded; these hostile preparations' were not directed against us, but against a body of their own countrymen, who were coming to fight them; and our friends of the Sound, on observing our apprehensions, used their best endeavours to convince us that this was the case. We could see that they had people looking out on each' point of the cove, and canoes frequently passed between them and the main body assembled near the ships. At length, the adverse party, in about a dozen large canoes, appeared off the S. point of the cove, where they stopped, and lay drawn up in a line of battle, a négociation having commenced. Some people in canoes, in conducting the treaty, passed between the two parties, and there was some speaking on both sides. At length, the difference, whatever it was, seemed to be compromised; but the strangers were not allowed to come alongside the ships, nor to have any trade or intercourse with us. Probably we were the cause of the quarrel; the strangers, perhaps, being desirous to share in the advantages of a trade with us, and our first friends, the inhabitants of the Sound, being determined to engross us entirely to themselves. We had proofs of this on several other occasions, nay, it appeared, that even those who lived in the Sound were not united in the same cause; for the weaker were frequently obliged to give way to the stronger party, and plundered of every thing, without attempting to make the least resistance. We resumed our work in the afternoon, and the next day rigged the fore-mast; the head of which being rather too small for the cap, the carpenter went to work, to fix a piece on one side, to fill up the vacant space. In cutting into the mast-head for this purpose, and examining the state of it, both cheeks were found to be so rotten, that there was no possibility of repairing them, and it became necessary to get the mast out, and to fix new ones upon it. It was evident, that one of the cheeks had been defective at the first, and that the unsound part had been cut out, and a piece put in, which had not only weakened the masthead, but had, in a great measure, been the occasion of rotting |