tment, while some had their faces painted with the same composition.
They seemed indifferent to all the presents offered them; even bread and
fish they threw away, till some birds were given them, at which they
expressed their satisfaction.

A boar and sow had been landed for the purpose of being left in the
woods, but no sooner did the natives see them than they seized them by
the ears, evidently with the intention of carrying them off and killing
them. Captain Cook, wishing to know the use of the stick one of them
carried, the native set up a mark and threw his stick at it. He missed
it, however, so often, that Omai, to show the superiority of the white
men's arms, fired his musket. This very naturally made the whole party
ran off, and drop some axes and other things which had been given to
them. They ran towards where the Adventure's people were cutting wood,
when the officer, not knowing their intention, fired a musket over their
heads, which sent them off altogether. The boar and sow were carried to
a thick wood at the head of the bay, where it was hoped that they would
conceal themselves and escape the natives; but some cattle which it had
been intended to leave there were returned on board, as it was clear
that the natives would immediately kill them.

A calm kept the ships in harbour, and the next day, notwithstanding the
fright which the natives had received, a party of twenty or more, men
and boys, made their appearance. Among them was one terribly deformed,
who seemed to be the acknowledged wit of the party, as he and his
friends laughed heartily at the remarks he made, and seemed surprised
that the English did not do the same. Their language was different from
that of the tribes met with in the north. Some of these people had
bands of fur passed several times round their necks, and others of
kangaroo-skin round their ankles. They seemed to be unacquainted with
fishing, by the way they looked at the English fish-hooks, and their
rejection of the fish offered them; though near their fires quantities
of mussel shells were found, showing that they lived partly on
shell-fish. Their habitations were mere sheds of sticks covered with
bark, and there were indications of their taking up their abodes in
trees hollowed out by fire or decay. From the marks of fires it was
evident that they cooked their food, but they did not appear to have the
slightest notion of cultivating the land. The people here describ