in where we were till next morning; and, that no time
might be lost, I employed the remainder of the day to some useful
purposes, ordering the sails to be unbent, the top-masts to be struck,
and the fore-mast of the Resolution to be unrigged, in order to fix a
new bib, one of the old ones being decayed.

A great many canoes, filled with the natives, were about the ships all
day, and a trade commenced betwixt us and them, which was carried
on with the strictest honesty on both sides. The articles which they
offered to sale were skins of various animals, such as bears, wolves,
foxes, deer, rackoons, pole-cats, martins, and, in particular, of the
sea-otters, which are found at the islands E. of Kamtschatka. Besides
the skins in their native shape, they also brought garments made of
them, and another sort of cloathing made of the bark of a tree, or
some plant like hemp; weapons, such as bows, arrows, and spears;
fish-hooks, and instruments of various kinds; wooden-vizors of many
different monstrous figures; a sort of woollen stuff, or blanketing;
bags filled with red ochre; pieces of carved work, beads, and
several other little ornaments of thin brass and iron, shaped like a
horse-shoe, which they hang at their noses; and several chisels, or
pieces of iron, fixed to handles. From their possessing which metals,
we could infer that they had either been visited before by some
civilized nation, or had connections with tribes on their continent,
who had communication with them. But the most extraordinary of all the
articles which they brought to the ships for sale, were human skulls,
and hands not yet quite stripped of the flesh, which they made our
people plainly understand they had eaten; and, indeed, some of them
had evident marks that they had been upon the fire. We had but too
much reason to suspect, from this circumstance, that the horrid
practice of feeding on their enemies is as prevalent here, as we had
found it to be at New Zealand and other South Sea Islands. For the
various articles which they brought, they took in exchange knives,
chisels, pieces of iron and tin, nails, looking-glasses, buttons, or
any kind of metal. Glass-beads they were not fond of, and cloth of
every sort they rejected.

We employed the next day in hauling our ships into the cove, where
they were moored head and stern, fastening our hawsers to the trees
on shore. On heaving up the anchor of the Resolution, we found,
notwithstanding the great de