James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 083

                                  GEORGES ISLAND     

not to be fit for our purpose, no one of the Natives made the least opposition at our landing but came to us with all imaginable Marks of Friendship & Submission we Afterwards made a Circuit through to the Woods, & then came onboard we did not find the inhabitants to be numerous & we imagin'd that several of them had fled from these habitations upon our Arrival in the Bay-

FRIDAY 14.th This morning we had a great many Canoes about the Ship the most of them came from the Westward but brought nothing with them but a few Cocoa Nuts &tc. Two that appeared to be Chiefs we had onboard together with several others for it was a hard matter to keep them out of the Ships as they Clime[sic] like Monkeys, but it was still harder to keep them from Stealing but every thing that came within their reach in this they are Prodigious Expert, I made each of these 2 Chiefs a Present of a Hatchet things that they seemed mostly to value, as soon
[note left margin] - A small Excursion to the Westward-
as we had partly got clear of these People I took 2 Boats & went to the Westward all the Gentlemen being along with me, my design was to see if their was not a more commodious Harbour & to try the disposition of the Natives having along with us the 2 Chiefs above mentioned: the first place we landed at was in great Canoe Harbour ( so called by Capt.n Wallis) here the Natives Flocked about us in great numbers, & in as friendly a manner as we could wish, only that they shew'd a great inclination to Pick our Pockets, we were conducted to a Chief who for distinction sake we called Hurcules, after staying a Short time with him & distributing a few Presents about us, we proceeded further & come to a Chief who I shall call Lycurgus this man entertain'd us with boild fish, Bread fruit, Cocoa Nutts, &tc with great Hospitality & all the time took great care to tell us to take care of our Pockets, as a great number of People had crowded about us, notwithstanding the care we took Dr Solander & Dr. Monkhouse had each of them their Pockets Picked, the former one of his spy glass, & the latter other of his snuff Box, as soon as Lysurgus was made acquainted with the Theft he dispers'd the People in a moment & the method he made use of was to lay hold on the first thing that came in his way & throw it at them & happy was he or she that could get first out of his way he seem'd very much concern'd for what had hapned & by way of recompence offer'd us but everything that was in his House, but we refused to accept of anything & made signs to him that we only wanted the things again, he had already sent people out after them, & it was not long before they were return'd, We found the Natives very numerous where Ever we came & from what we could judge seem'd very Peaceably inclin'd, about 6 o'Clock in the evening we return'd onboard very well satisfied with our little Excursion-

SATURDAY 15.th Winds at East during the day in the Night a light breeze off the land as I apprehend it be usual here for the Tradewind to blow during great part of the day from the Eastern Board & to have it Calm or light breezes from the land that is Southerly during the night with fair wea.r I shall only mention
[note left margin] - This day one of the Natives was kill'd -
the wind & weather when they Deviate from this rule, This morning several of the Chiefs we had seen Yesterday came onboard & brought with them Hogs Bread fruit &tc, for these we gave them Hatchets, Linnen & such things as they valued- Having not meet with yesterday a more Convenienter situation for every purpose we wanted than the place where we now are. I therefore without