1769. October, mined therefore to return to the ship, which be and they left us, promifing to come on board In the evening, the weather having become fair and moderate, the boats were again ordered out, and I landed, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander. We were received with great expreffions of friendship by the natives, who be haved with a fcrupulous attention not to give offence. In particular, they took care not to appear in great bodies: one family, or the inhabitants of two or three houfes only, were generally placed together, to the number of fifteen or twenty, confifting of men, women, and children. Thefe little companies fat upon the ground, not advancing towards us, but inviting us to them, by a kind of beckon, moving one hand towards the breaft. We made them feveral little prefents; and in our walk round the bay found two fmall ftreams of fresh water. This convenience, and the friendly behaviour of the people, determined me to stay at least a day, that I might fill fome of my empty casks, and give Mr. Banks an opportunity of examining the natural produce of the country. In 1769. October. In the morning of the 21st, I fent Lieute nant Gore on fhore, to fuperintend the waterSaturd, 21. ing, with a strong party of men; and they were foon followed by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with Tupia, Tayeto, and four others. The natives fat by our people, and seemed pleased to observe them; but did not intermix with them: they traded, however, chiefly for cloth, and after a fhort time applied to their ordinary occupations, as if no ftranger had been among them. In the forenoon, feveral of their boats went out a fishing, and at dinner time every one repaired to his refpective dwelling; from which, after a certain time, he returned. These fair appearances encouraged Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to range the bay with very little precaution, where they found many plants, and fhot fome birds of exquifite beauty, In their walk, they vifited feveral houses of the natives, and faw fomething of their manner of life; for they fhowed, without any reserve, every thing which the Gentlemen defired to fee. They were fometimes found at their meals, which the approach of the ftrangers never interrupted. Their food at this feafon confifted of fish, with which, instead of bread, they eat the root of a kind of fern, very like that which grows upon our commons in England. Thefe roots they scorch over the fire, and then beat with a stick, till the bark and dry outside fall off; 1 ! off; what remains is a soft fubftance, fomewhat In other 1769. October. 1 clammy and sweet, not unpleafing to the taste, but mixed with three or four times its quantity Saturday21. of strings and fibres, which are very difagreeable; thefe were fwallowed by fome, but fpic out by the far greater number, who had baskets under them to receive the rejected part of what had been chewed, which had an appearance very like that of tobacco in the fame ftate. seasons they have certainly plenty of excellent vegetables; but no tame animals were feen among them except dogs, which were very fmall and ugly. Mr. Banks faw fome of their plantations, where the ground was as well broken down and tilled as even in the gardens of the most curious people among us: in thefe fpots were sweet potatoes, coccos or eddas, which are well known and much esteemed both in the East and West Indies, and fome gourds: the sweet potatoes were planted in small hills, fome ranged in rows, and others in quincunx, all laid' by a line with the greatest regularity: the coccos were planted upon flat land, but none of them yet appeared above ground; and the gourds were fet in fmall hollows, or difhes, much as in England. These plantations were of different extent, from one or two acres to ten: taken together, there appeared to be from 150 to 200 acres in cultivation in the whole bay, though we never faw an hundred people. Each diftrict 1769. October. Saturd. 21. district was fenced in, generally with reeds, which were placed fo close together that there was scarcely room for a mouse to creep be tween. The women were plain, and made themselves more fo by painting their faces with red ocre and oil, which being generally fresh and wet upon their cheeks and foreheads, was easily transferred to the noses of those who thought fit to falute them; and that they were not wholly averse to such familiarity, the noses of several of our people strongly teftified: they were, however, as great coquets as any of the most fafhionable ladies in Europe, and the young ones as skittish as an unbroken filly: each of them wore a petticoat, under which there was a girdle, made of the blades of grafs highly perfumed, and to the girdle was fastened a small bunch of the leaves of fome fragrant plant, which ferved their modesty as its innermoft veil. The faces of the men were not fo generally painted, yet we saw one whofe whole body, and even his garments, were rubbed over with dry ocre, of which he kept a piece conftantly in his hand, and was every minute renewing the decoration in one part or another, where he fuppofed it was become deficient. In perfonal delicacy they were not equal to our friends at Otaheite, for the coldness of the climate did not invite them fo often to bathe; but we faw among them one inftance 1769. October. inftance of cleanlinefs in which they exceeded them, and of which perhaps there is no example in any other Indian nation. Every houfe, or Saturd, 21. every little cluster of three or four houses, was furnished with a privy, so that the ground was every where clean. The offals of their food, and other litter, were alfo piled up in regular dunghills, which probably they made use of at a proper time for manure. In this decent article of civil ceconomy they were beforehand with one of the moft confiderable nations of Europe, for I am credibly informed, that, till the year 1760, there was no fuch thing as a privy in Madrid, the metropolis of Spain, though it is plentifully fupplied with water. Before that time it was the univerfal practice to throw the ordure out of the windows, during the night, into the ftreet, where numbers of men were employed to remove it, with shovels, from the upper parts of the city to the lower, where it lay till it was dry, and was then carried away in carts, and depofited without the gates. His prefent Catholic Majefty, having determined to free his capital from so grofs a nuifance, ordered, by proclamation, that the proprietor of every house should build a privy, and that finks, drains, and common-fewers fhould be made at the public expence. The Spaniards, though long accustomed to an arbitrary government, refented this proclamation |