A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

I continued to steer to the west till the 6th, at four in the afternoon, at which time, being in the latitude of 9°20', longitude 138° 14' W., we discovered an island, bearing west by south, distant about nine leagues. Twohours after we saw another, bearing S.W. by S., which appeared more extensive than the former. I hauledup for this island, and ran under an easy sail all night, having squally unsettled rainy weather, which is notvery uncommon in this sea, when near high land. At six o'clock the next morning, the first island bore N.W., the second S.W. 1/2 W., and a third W. I gave orders to steer for the separation between the two last;and soon after, a fourth was seen, still more to the west. By this time, we were well assured that these werethe Marquesas, discovered by Mendana in 1595. The first isle was a new discovery, which I named Hood'sIsland, after the young gentleman who first saw it, the second was that of Saint Pedro, the third LaDominica, and the fourth St Christina. We ranged the S.E..coast of La Dominica, without seeing the leastsigns of anchorage, till we came to the channel that divides it from St Christina, through which we passed,hauled over for the last-mentioned island, and ran along the coast to the S.W. in search of Mendana's Port.We passed several coves in which there seemed to be anchorage; but a great surf broke on all the shores.Some canoes put off from these places, and followed us down the coast.At length, having come before the port we were in search of, we attempted to turn into it, the wind beingright out; but as it blew in violent squalls from this high land, one of these took us just after we had put instays, payed the ship off again, and before she wore round, she was within a few yards of being drivenagainst the rocks to leeward. This obliged us to stand out to sea, and to make a stretch to windward; afterwhich we stood in again, and without attempting to turn, anchored in the entrance of the bay in thirty-fourfathoms water, a fine sandy bottom. This was no sooner done, than about thirty or forty of the natives cameoff to us in ten or twelve canoes; but it required some address to get them alongside. At last a hatchet, andsome spike-nails, induced the people in one canoe to come under the quarter-gallery; after which, all theothers put alongside, and having exchanged some breadfruit and fish for small nails, &c. retired ashore, thesun being already set. We observed a heap of stones on the bow of each canoe, and every man to have asling tied round his hand.Very early next morning, the natives visited us again in much greater numbers than before; bringing withthem bread-fruit, plantains, and one pig, all of which they exchanged for nails, &c. But in this traffic theywould frequently keep our goods, and make no return, till at last I was obliged to fire a musket-ball overone man who had several times served us in this manner; after which they dealt more fairly; and soon afterseveral of them came on board. At this time we were preparing to warp farther into the bay, and I wasgoing in a boat, to look for the most convenient place to moor the ship in. Observing too many of thenatives on board, I said to the officers, "You must look well after these people, or they will certainly carryoff something or other." I had hardly got into the boat, before I was told they had stolen one of the ironstanchions from the opposite gang-way, and were making off with it. I ordered them to fire over the canoetill I could get round in the boat, but not to kill any one. But the natives made too much noise for me to beheard, and the unhappy thief was killed at the third shot. Two others in the same canoe leaped overboard,but got in again just as I came to them. The stanchion they had thrown over board. One of them, a mangrown, sat bailing the blood and water out of the canoe, in a kind of hysteric laugh; the other, a youth aboutfourteen or fifteen years of age, looked on the deceased with a serious and dejected countenance; we hadafterwards reason to believe he was his son.[1][1] Mr G.F. represents this unhappy transaction in a somewhat different manner, affirming that anofficer who happened to come on deck the moment after the second ineffectual shot, and who wastotally ignorant of the nature of the offence committed, snatched up a musket and fired with suchfatal precision. This might be the case unknown to Captain Cook, whose representation may beconsidered as perfectly according with his own immediate understanding of the circumstance, and