with whom, by means of gifts of beads
and other trifles, they established friendly relations, and three of them
were persuaded to go on board the ship. Though by no means a small race
of men, they were found to be nothing like the giants reported by the
early navigators in this part of the world. They had in their possession
buttons, glass, canvas, brown cloth, etc., showing conclusively they had
previously some communication with Europeans. Their clothing consisted
chiefly of skins, roughly cured, and a plentiful covering of paint and
dirt. The only personal property on which they appeared to set any store
were their bows and arrows, which were carefully made and always in good
order. Their food appeared to consist of seal and shell-fish; their
houses, merely shelters of boughs covered with grass and leaves built to
windward of a small fire.

A SNOWSTORM.

On 16th January, Banks, Solander, Buchan, Green, Monkhouse, two seamen,
and Banks's two coloured servants, tried to get up the hills to see
something of the surrounding country, but they found their progress
hampered by the dwarf vegetation. To add to their discomfort a heavy
snowstorm came on. Several of the party experienced that desire to sleep
which is produced by cold, and were warned by Solander of the danger of
giving way to it, yet he was almost the first one to give in, and was
with great difficulty kept awake. Buchan, most unfortunately, had a fit,
so a large fire was made at the first convenient spot, but a sailor and
the two coloured men lagged behind. During the night the sailor was heard
shouting, and was brought in to the fire, but in the morning the two
coloured men were found frozen to death. Cook attributed their death to
overindulgence in spirits, the supply for the party being left in their
charge. Not intending to remain away the night, supplies ran short, so a
vulture was shot and carefully divided amongst them, each man cooking his
own, which amounted to about three mouthfuls. At length the weather
cleared up and a start back was made, and after three hours they struck
the beach, only to find they had never been any great distance away but
had been describing a circle and came back almost to the place whence
they had started. Banks notes the vegetation as more exuberant than he
expected; the dominant colour of the flowers, white; and he collected
wild celery and scurvy grass in large quantities, which was mixed with
the food on board ship as