d take them on shore again.[5]

[Footnote 5: The reader is desired to pay particular attention to the
high testimony borne by Cook to the characters of these islanders. It
is a circumstance too singularly interesting not to give rise to some
painful reflections, that, on apparently good grounds, he should have
entertained the best opinion of those very people, from whom he was
destined shortly afterwards to receive the greatest of injuries.
However that event is to be explained, it seems very fair that his
evidence in their favour obtain full regard, and that they, therefore,
be entitled to any benefits it may be supposed to confer.--E.]

On the 22d, at eight in the morning, we tacked to the southward, with
a fresh breeze at E. by N. At noon, the latitude was 20 deg. 28' 30"; and
the snowy peak bore S.W. 1/2 S. We had a good view of it the preceding
day, and the quantity of snow seemed to have increased, and to extend
lower down the hill. I stood to the S.E. till midnight, then tacked
to the N. till four in the morning, when we returned to the S.E. tack;
and, as the wind was at N.E. by E., we had hopes of weathering the
island. We should have succeeded, if the wind had not died away, and
left us to the mercy of a great swell, which carried us fast toward
the land, which was not two leagues distant. At length, we got our
head off, and some light puffs of wind, which came with showers
of rain, put us out of danger. While we lay, as it were, becalmed,
several of the islanders came off with hogs, fowls, fruit, and roots.
Out of one canoe we got a goose, which was about the size of a Muscovy
duck. Its plumage was dark-grey, and the bill and legs black.

At four in the afternoon, after purchasing every thing that the
natives had brought off, which was full as much as we had occasion
for, we made sail, and stretched to the N., with the wind at E.N.E. At
midnight, we tacked, and stood to the S.E. Upon a supposition that the
Discovery would see us tack, the signal was omitted; but she did not
see us, as we afterwards found, and continued standing to the N.;
for at day-light next morning she was not in sight. At this time the
weather being hazy we could not see far, so that it was possible the
Discovery might be following us; and, being past the N.E. part of the
island, I was tempted to stand on, till, by the wind veering to N.E.,
we could not weather the land upon the other tack. Consequently we
could not stand to the N, to jo