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/201

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tance in quest of them, as their numbers did not seem to exceed three families; and the whole bay being almost entirely destitute of inhabitants, one single family more excepted, they need not be apprehensive of disturbance from bad neighbours. The features of these men were rather wild, but not ill-favoured; their complexion resembled that of the family on Indian Island, of a mahogany brown; their hair bushy, and their beards frizled and black. They were of a middling stature and stout, but their legs and thighs very slender, and their knees too much swelled in proportion. Their dress and general behaviour seemed to be the same as that of the other family before mentioned. The courage of this people has something singular in it, for it should seem, that in spight of their inferiority of force, they cannot brook the thought of hiding themselves, at least not till they have made an attempt to establish an intercourse, or prove the principles of the strangers who approach them. It would have been impossible for us, among the numerous islands and harbours, and in the mazy forests upon them, to have found out the family which we saw on the Indian Island, if they had not discovered themselves, and thus made the first advances. We might also have departed from the cove without knowing that it was inhabited, if the natives had not shouted at the discharge of our muskets. In both cases a certain openness and honesty, appear strongly to mark