Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/317

] us. They hastened alongside of our vessel, and the most of them were loaded with different kinds of fruit, amongst which I remarked the bread-fruit, but of a smaller size, and not so good in quality as what we had met with at the Friendly Islands; it was not, however, of the wild sort, for it only contained a very small quantity of seed.

We were not a little surprized to observe that those islanders set very little value on the iron which we offered them, though we could not doubt that they knew the use of it, for one of them had a piece of a joiner's chissel with a wooden handle, of the same kind as their stone hatchets; but when we showed them some pieces of red cloth, their admiration, expressed by the words youli, youli, gaves us hopes of succeeding better with these articles in bartering for their commodities than with our hardware. In fact they consented to sell us some of their arms, but probably fearing, lest we should turn them against themselves, they took the precaution not to part with any of their bows, and even to blunt the arrows which they sold us.

Soon after several of them gave us proofs of their dishonesty. With a view to cheat us of our articles in bartering, they at first offered a good