mselves upon the ground: At first, therefore,
myself, with only Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and Tupia, landed from the
little boat, and advanced towards them; but we had not proceeded many
paces before they all started up, and every man produced either a long
pike, or a small weapon of green talc, extremely well polished, about a
foot long, and thick enough to weigh four or five pounds: Tupia called
to them in the language of Otaheite; but they answered only by
flourishing their weapons, and making signs to us to depart; a musket
was then fired wide of them, and the ball struck the water, the river
being still between, us: They saw the effect, and desisted from their
threats; but we thought it prudent to retreat till the marines could be
landed. This was soon done; and they marched, with a jack carried before
them, to a little bank, about fifty yards from the water-side; here they
were drawn up, and I again advanced, with Mr Banks and Dr Solander;
Tupia, Mr Green, and Mr Monkhouse, being with us. Tupia was again
directed to speak to them, and it was with great pleasure that we
perceived he was perfectly understood, he and the natives speaking only
different dialects of the same language. He told them that we wanted
provision and water, and would give them iron in exchange, the
properties of which he explained as well as he was able. They were
willing to trade, and desired that we would come over to them for that
purpose: To this we consented, provided they would lay by their arms;
which, however, they could by no means be persuaded to do. During this
conversation, Tupia warned us to be upon our guard, for that they were
not our friends: We then pressed them in our turn to come over to us;
and at last one of them stripped himself, and swam over without his
arms: He was almost immediately followed by two more, and soon after by
most of the rest, to the number of twenty or thirty; but these brought
their arms with them. We made them all presents of iron and heads; but
they seemed to set little value upon either, particularly the iron, not
having the least idea of its use; so that we got nothing in return but a
few feathers: They offered indeed to exchange their arms for ours, and,
when we refused, made many attempts to snatch them out of our hands. As
soon as they came over, Tupia repeated his declaration, that they were
not our friends, and again warned us to be upon our guard; their
attempts to snatch our weapons, therefore, di