Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/200

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other man likewise came up to salute the captain, and was presented with a hatchet; and several of us came ashore to them, at which they were not the least alarmed, but received every new comer with great cordiality. We now perceived several other natives, probably women, on the skirts of the wood, and the two men earnestly intreated us to go up to their habitations, intimating by signs, that they would give us something to eat there; but the tide and other circumstances did not permit us to accept their invitation. When we had taken leave of them, the two men followed us to our boats, where they desired us to remove the muskets which lay across the stern, and having complied with their request, they came along-side, and assisted us to launch the boats, which were aground on account of the ebb. We found however that it was necessary to have an eye upon them, because they seemed to covet the possession of every thing they saw or could lay hands on, except the muskets, which they would not touch, being taught to respect them as instruments of death, on account of the havock they had seen us make among the wild-fowl. We observed no canoes among them, and their only means of transporting themselves across the river, was on a few logs of wood connected together into a kind of raft, which was perfectly sufficient for that purpose. Fish and wild-fowl were in such plenty here, that they can have little occasion to roam to any dis-