en;
and such were the limits of European knowledge, when the expedition of
Cook was dispatched by Great Britain to explore this hemisphere. No
navigator brought larger views, and a temper more benevolent, to the
task of discovery. To some nations he opened the path of civilisation
and religion: to this race he was the harbinger of death.

[1773.] Furneaux, Captain Cook's second in command, first visited this
country. He saw the fires of the natives, ten miles off. They had left
their huts, formed but for a day, in which were fragments of fish,
baskets, and spears. The British deposited gun-flints, barrels, and
nails, in payment for the relics they removed; and they left Adventure
Bay, concluding that a most miserable race of mortals inhabited a
country capable of producing all the necessaries of life, "and the
finest climate in the world."

One year before, Captain Marian, a Frenchman, according to the authors
of his country, visited this island. The intercourse was hostile and
left traces of blood; and to this may be attributed the absence of the
natives when Furneaux appeared on the coast.

[1777.] The descriptions of Cook are founded on his own observations,
and are, on the whole, favorable to the natives. The English, while
wooding and watering, were surprised by the visit of eight men and a
boy. They were unarmed, except that one of them carried a stick, pointed
at the end. They were of middling stature, slender, and naked. On
different parts of their bodies were ridges, both straight and curved,
raised in the skin: the hair of the head and beard was smeared with red
ointment. They were indifferent to presents; they rejected bread, and
the flesh of the sea elephant, but accepted some birds, which they
signified their intention to eat. Cook prevailed on a native to throw
the stick at a mark thirty yards distant, but he failed after repeated
trial. The Otaheitian, Omai,[1] to exhibit his skill, fired off a
musket: at the report they fled, and so great was their fear, that they
dropped the axe and knives they had received.

A dead calm retarded the departure of the vessels next day, and the
parties sent ashore, were accompanied by Cook. About twenty natives soon
joined them: one, who was conspicuously deformed, amused them by the
drollery of his gestures, and the seeming humour of his speeches. Some,
wore three or four folds round the neck, made of fur; and round the
ancles a slip of the skin of kangaroo. Captain