thing in the house, as it certainly would have been taken by others;
especially as I could not sufficiently explain to them my meaning. Strict
honesty was seldom observed when the property of our things came to be
disputed. I saw a striking instance of this in the morning, when I was
going ashore. A man in a canoe offered me a small pig for a six-inch spike,
and another man being employed to convey it, I gave him the spike, which he
kept for himself, and instead of it, gave to the man who owned the pig a
sixpenny nail. Words of course arose, and I waited to see how it would end;
but as the man who had possession of the spike seemed resolved to keep it,
I left them before it was decided. In the evening we returned on board with
what refreshments we had collected, and thought we had made a good day's
work.

On the 10th, early in the morning, some people from more distant parts came
in canoes alongside, and sold us some pigs; so that we had now sufficient
to give the crew a fresh meal. They were, in general, so small, that forty
or fifty were hardly sufficient for this purpose. The trade on shore for
fruit was as brisk as ever. After dinner, I made a little expedition in my
boat along the coast to the south-ward, accompanied by some of the
gentlemen: At the different places we touched at, we collected eighteen
pigs; and I believe, might have got more. The people were exceedingly
obliging wherever we landed, and readily brought down whatever we
desired.[2]

Next morning I went down to the same place where we had been the preceding
evening; but instead of getting pigs, as I expected, found the scene quite
changed. The nails and other things they were mad after but the evening
before, they now despised, and instead of them wanted they did not know
what; so that I was obliged to return, with three or four little pigs,
which cost more than a dozen did the day before. When I got on board, I
found the same change had happened there, as also at the trading place on
shore. The reason was, several of the young gentlemen having landed the
preceding day, had given away in exchange various articles which the people
had not seen before, and which took with them more than nails or more
useful iron tools. But what ruined our market the most, was one of them
giving for a pig a very large quantity of red feathers he had got at
Amsterdam. None of us knew at this time, that this article was in such
estimation here; and, if I had known it, I