Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/138

80 purchasing four or six bread-fruits and a like number of cocoanuts. My tents were got up before night, and I slept ashore in them for the first time. The lines were guarded by many sentries, but no Indian attempted to come near them during the whole night.

19th. This morning Lycurgus and his wife came to see us and brought with them all their household furniture, and even houses to be erected in our neighbourhood, a circumstance which gave me great pleasure, as I had spared no pains to gain the friendship of this man, who seemed more sensible than any of his fellow-chiefs we have seen. His behaviour in this instance makes us sure of having gained his confidence at least.

Soon after his arrival he took me by the hand and led me out of the lines, signing that I should accompany him into the woods, which I did willingly, as I was desirous of knowing how near us he intended to settle. I followed him about a quarter of a mile, when we arrived at a small house, or rather the awning of a canoe set up on the shore, which seemed to be his temporary habitation. Here he unfolded a bundle of their cloths and clothed me in two garments, one of red cloth, the other of a very pretty matting, after which we returned to the tents. He ate pork and bread-fruit which was brought him in a basket, using salt-water instead of sauce, and then retired into my bed-chamber and slept about half an hour.

About dinner-time Lycurgus’s wife brought a handsome young man of about twenty-two to the tents, whom they both seemed to acknowledge as their son; at night he and another chief, who had also visited us, went away to the westward, but Lycurgus and his wife went towards the place I was at in the morning, which makes us not doubt of their staying with us for the future.

20th. Rained hard all this day, at intervals so much so that we could not stir at all: the people, however, went on briskly with the fortification in spite of weather. Lycurgus dined with us, he imitated our manners in every instance, already holding a knife and fork more handily than a French-