y made a sort of hook of a long
stick, with which they endeavoured openly to rob us of several things,
and, at last, actually got a frock, belonging to one of our people that
was towing, overboard. At the same time they immediately shewed a
knowledge of bartering, and sold some fish they had (amongst which was
an extraordinary flounder, spotted like porphyry, and a cream-coloured
eel, spotted with black) for small nails, of which they were
immoderately fond, and called them _goore_. But, indeed, they caught
with the greatest avidity bits of paper, or any thing else that was
thrown to them; and if what was thrown fell into the sea, they made no
scruple to swim after it.

These people seemed to differ as much in person as in disposition from
the natives of Wateeoo, though the distance between the two islands is
not very great. Their colour was of a deeper cast; and several had a
fierce, rugged aspect, resembling the natives of New Zealand, but some
were fairer. They had strong black hair, which, in general, they wore
either hanging loose about the shoulders, or tied in a bunch on the
crown of the head. Some, however, had it cropped pretty short; and in
two or three of them it was of a brown or reddish colour. Their only
covering was a narrow piece of mat, wrapt several times round the lower
part of the body, and which passed between the thighs; but a fine cap of
red feathers was seen lying in one of the canoes. The shell of a
pearl-oyster polished, and hung about the neck, was the only ornamental
fashion that we observed amongst them, for not one of them had adopted
that mode of ornament so generally prevalent amongst the natives of this
ocean, of puncturing, or _tatooing_, their bodies.

Though singular in this, we had the most unequivocal proofs of their
being of the same common race. Their language approached still nearer to
the dialect of Otaheite than that of Wateeoo or Mangeea. Like the
inhabitants of these two islands, they enquired from whence our ships
came, and whither bound, who was our chief, the number of our men on
board, and even the ship's name. And they very readily answered such
questions as we proposed to them. Amongst other things, they told us
they had seen two great ships like ours before, but that they had not
spoken with them as they sailed past. There can be no doubt that these
were the Resolution and Adventure. We learnt from them, that the name
of their island is Terouggemon Atooa, and that the