buted some more presents among them, and soon after they left us, and landed on the same side of the river where our people had gone ashore every man carried in his hand two lances, and a stick, which is used in throwing them, and advanced to the place where Tupia and the rest of our people were sitting. Tupia soon prevailed upon them to lay down their arms, and come forward without them: he then made signs that they should sit down by him, with which they complied, and seemed to be under no apprehension or constraint: several more of us then going ashore, they expressed some jealousy lest we should get between them and their arms; we took care, however, to show them that we had no such intention, and, having joined them, we made them some more presents, as a farther testimony of our goodwill, and our desire to obtain theirs. We continued together, with the utmost cordiality, till dinner-time, and then giving them to understand that we were going to eat, we invited them by signs to go with us: this, however, they declined, and as soon as we left them, they went away in their canoe. One of these men was somewhat above the middle age, the other three were young; they were in general of the common stature, but their limbs were remarkably small; their skin was of the colour of wood-soot, or what would be called a dark chocolate colour; their hair was black, but not woolly; it was shortcropped, in some lank, and in others curled. Dampier says that the people whom he saw on the western coast of this country wanted two of their fore teeth, but these had no such defect: some part of their bodies had been painted red, and the upper lip and breast of one of them was painted with streaks of white, which he called Carbanda; their features were far from disagreeable, their eyes were lively, and their teeth even and white. their voices were soft and tunable, and they repeated many words after us with great facility. The next morning we had another visit from four of the natives; three of them had been with us before, but the fourth was a stranger, whose name, as we learned from his companions who introduced him was Yaparico. This gentleman was distinguished by an ornament of a very striking appearance it was the bone of a bird, nearly as thick as a man's finger, and five or six inches long, which he had thrust into a hole made in the gristle that divides the nostrils; of this we had seen one instance, and only one, in New Zealand; but, upon examination, we found that among all these people this part of the nose was perforated, to receive an ornament of the same kind: they had also holes in their ears, though nothing was then hanging to them, and had bracelets upon the upper part of their arms, made of platted hair, so that, like the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, they seem to be fond of ornament, though they are absolutely without apparel; and one of them, to whom I had given part of an old shirt, instead of throwing it over any part of his body, tied it as a fillet round his head. They brought with them a fish, which they gave us, as we supposed, in return for the fish that we had given them the day before. They seemed to be much pleased, and in no haste to leave us; but seeing some of our gentlemen examine their canoe with great curiosity and attention, they were alarmed, and jumping immediately into it, paddled away without speaking a word. We observed that all of them were remarkably clean-limbed, and exceedingly active and nimble. One had a necklace of shells, very prettily made, and a bracelet upon his arm, formed of several strings, so as to resemble what in England is called over the forehead, and gymp: others had a piece of bark tied THE KANGAROO. Mr. Gore, who went out this day with his gun, had the good fortune to kill one of the animals which had been so much the subject of our speculation, the Kangaroo. In form, it is most like the Jerboa, which it also resembles in its motion, as has been observed already; but it greatly differs in size, the Jerboa not being larger than a common rat, and this animal, when full grown, being as big as a sheep: this was a young one, much under its full growth, weighing only thirty-eight pounds. The head, neck, and shoulders are very small in proportion to the other parts of the body; the tail is nearly as long as the body, thick near the rump, and tapering towards the end: the fore-legs of this individual were only eight inches long, and the hind-legs two-and-twenty: its progress is by successive leaps or hops, of a great length, in an erect posture; the fore-legs are kept bent close to the breast, and seemed to be of use only for digging: the skin is covered with a short fur, of a dark mouse or gray colour, excepting the head and ears, which bear a slight resemblance to those of a hare. ་ TURTLE. The next day our kangaroo was dressed for dinner, and proved most excellent meat; we might now indeed be said to fare sumptuously every day; for we had turtle in great plenty, and we all agreed that they were much better than any we had tasted in England, which we imputed to their being eaten fresh from the sea, before their natural fat had been wasted, or their juices changed by a diet and situation so different from what the sea affords them, as garbage and a tub. Most of those that we caught here were of the kind called green turtle, and weighed from two to three hundredweight, and when these were killed, they were always found to be full of turtle grass, which our naturalists took to be a kind of conferva: two of them were logger-heads, the flesh of which was much less delicious, and in their stomachs nothing was to be found but shells. AFFRAY WITH THE NATIVES. On the 19th, in the morning, we were visited by ten of the natives, and, like all the rest of the people we had seen in this country, they were stark naked. Our guests brought with them a greater number of lances than they had ever done before, and having laid them up in a tree, they set a man and a boy to watch them the rest then came on board, and we soon perceived that they had determined to get one of our turtle, which was probably as great a dainty to them as to us. They first asked us by signs to give them one; and being refused, they expressed, both by looks and gestures, great disappointment and anger. At this time we happened to have no victuals dressed, but I offered one of them some biscuit, which he snatched and threw over board with great disdain, One of them renewed his request to Mr. Banks, and upon a refusal stamped with his foot, and pushed him from him in a transport of resentment and indignation. Having applied by turns to almost every person who appeared to have any command in the ship, without success, they suddenly seized two of the turtles and dragged them towards the side of the ship where their canoe lay: our people soon forced them out of their hands, and replaced them with the rest. They would not however relinquish their enterprize, but made several other attempts of the same kind, in all which being equally disappointed, they suddenly leaped into their canoe in a rage, and began to paddle towards the shore. At the same time, I went into the boat with Mr. Banks and five or six of the ship's crew, and we got ashore before them, where many more of our people were already engaged in various employments. As soon as they landed, they seized their arms, and before we were aware of their design, they snatched a brand from under a pitch-kettle which was boiling, and making a circuit to the windward of the few things we had on shore, they set fire to the grass in their way, with surprising quickness and dexterity: the grass, which was five or six feet high, and as dry as stubble, burnt with amazing fury; and the fire made a rapid progress towards a tent of Mr. Banks's, which had been set up for Tupia when he was sick, taking in its course a sow and pigs, one of which it scorched to death. Mr. Banks leaped into a boat, and fetched some people from on board, just time enough to save his tent, by hauling it down upon the beach; but the smith's forge, at least such part of it as would burn, was consumed. While this was doing the Indians went to a place at some distance, where several of our people were washing, and where our nets, among |