ficked with us for cocoa-nuts and other
fruit, to all appearance as friendly as ever.

On the 17th, early in the morning, we had the misfortune to lose Mr
Buchan, the person whom Mr Banks had brought out as a painter of
landscapes and figures. He was a sober, diligent, and ingenious young
man, and greatly regretted by Mr Banks; who hoped, by his means, to have
gratified his friends in England with representations of this country
and its inhabitants, which no other person on board could delineate with
the same accuracy and elegance. He had always been subject to epileptic
fits, one of which seized him on the mountains of Terra del Fuego, and
this disorder being aggravated by a bilious complaint which he
contracted on board the ship, at length put an end to his life. It was
at first proposed to bury him on shore, but Mr Banks thinking that it
might perhaps give offence to the natives, with whose customs we were
then wholly unacquainted, we committed his body to the sea, with as much
decency and solemnity as our circumstances and situation would admit.

In the forenoon of this day we received a visit from Tubourai Tamaide,
and Tootahah, our chiefs, from the west: They brought with them, as
emblems of peace, not branches of plantain, but two young trees, and
would not venture on board till these had been received, having probably
been alarmed by the mischief which had been done at the tent. Each of
them also brought, as propitiatory gifts, some bread-fruit, and a hog
ready dressed: This was a most acceptable present, as we perceived that
hogs were not always to be got; and in return we gave to each of our
noble benefactors a hatchet and a nail. In the evening we went on shore
and set up a tent, in which Mr Green and myself spent the night, in
order to observe an eclipse of the first satellite of Jupiter; but the
weather becoming cloudy, we were disappointed.

On the 18th, at day-break, I went on shore, with as many people as could
possibly be spared from the ship, and began to erect our fort. While
some were employed in throwing up intrenchments, others were busy in
cutting pickets and fascines, which the natives, who soon gathered round
us as they had been used to do, were so far from hindering, that many of
them voluntarily assisted us, bringing the pickets and fascines from the
wood where they had been cut, with great alacrity: We had indeed been so
scrupulous of invading their property, that we purchased every stake
w