nd some wore the feathers of the native birds round
their heads. They had well-finished lances in their hands, twenty feet
long, and highly carved and polished clubs and pikes. The canoe also,
though small, was richly carved; and her head and stern were ornamented
with white feathers. Tupia stated that there were numerous islands
between the south and north-west, at different distances from Oheteroa;
and that there was one, three days' sail to the north-east, called
Manua, or Bird Island. The most distant island with which he was
acquainted to the south was Mouton, but his father had told him of
islands to the south of that. But considering the uncertainty of this
information, Captain Cook determined not to lose time in looking for
islands, but to steer to the south in search of a continent.

In leaving these islands we cannot help expressing regret that the
voyagers were so forgetful, as they appear to have been, of their
obligations to the religion they professed, and of the eternal welfare
of those among whom they sojourned. They found a people sunk in
idolatry and superstition, and should have endeavoured to do as the
Apostle Paul did at Athens, where, finding an altar inscribed "To the
unknown God," he said to the assembled multitude, "Whom therefore ye
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you," and then began to preach
Jesus Christ and His great salvation. But so far from imitating this
example, they, in many instances, took part in their idolatrous and
superstitious ceremonies. It is vain to attempt an excuse of these
Englishmen by saying either that it was the fashion of the times to pass
by the heathen without a thought for their wretched lost condition, or
that the party of philosophers and scientific men and discoverers were
not Christian missionaries. Every Christian ought to look upon himself
as a missionary, when work for his Lord can be done by him; and it was a
bad fashion to follow, surely, that of suffering heathens to perish
without one effort made for their salvation. No doubt there were great
physical and natural impediments in the way of Cook and his associates
making anything known to the natives of those islands; but these
impediments were overcome in relation to other matters.

The Endeavour sailed from Oheteroa on August 15, 1769. The 25th was the
first anniversary of the day she had quitted the shores of England. To
celebrate it a Cheshire cheese was cut, and a cask of porter bro