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CAPTAIN COOK’S SECOND VOYAGE.

had got at Amfterdam. Trade being thus flopped, the captain prepared to leave thisplace, and go where their wants might be effectually relieved; for after having beennineteen weeks at fea, and living all the time on fait diet, they could not but wantfome refrefhments; yet they had not one fick man on board, owing to the many anti-fcorbutic articles they had, and to the great attention of the furgeon, who was remark-ably careful to apply them in time.

April the i ith, at three o’clock in the afternoon, they weighed. They had nowbut little wind, and that very variable, with fhowers of rain.

The Marquefa, which they had juft left, were difcovered by Mendana, a Spaniard,and from him obtained the general name they now bear. They are five in num-ber, viz. La Magdalena, St. Pedro, La Dominica, Santa Chriftina, and Hood’s Ifland,which is the northernmoft; La Dominica is the largeft. It hath an unequal breadth,and is about fifteen or fixteen leagues in circuit. It is full of rugged hills, rifing inridges direftly from the fea; thefe ridges are disjoined by deep valleys, which areclothed with wood, as are the fides of fome of the hills $ the afpeCt is howeverbarren.

The inhabitants of thefe iflands, colle&ively, are without exception the fineft raceof people in this fea. For fine fhape and regular features, they perhaps furpafs allother nations. Neverthelefs, the affinity of their language to that fpoke in Otaheite and the Society Hies, fhew that they are of the fame nation. Oedidee could converfewith them tolerably well; and it was eafy to fee that their language was nearly the fame."

Their clothing is the fame as at Otaheite , and made of the fame materials; butthey have it not in fuch plenty; nor is it fo good. The men, for the moft part, havenothing to cover their nakednefs, except the marra, as it is called at Otaheite ; whichis a flip of cloth paffed round the waift and betwixt the legs. This Ample drefs isquite fufficient for the climate, and anfwers every purpofe modefty requires. The drefsof the women is a piece of cloth, wrapped round the loins like a petticoat, whichreaches down below the middle of the leg, and a loofe mantle over their fhoulders.

In the article of eating, thefe people are, by no means, fo cleanly as the Otaheitans.They are likewife dirty in their cookery. Pork and fowls are dreffed in an oven ofhot ftones, as at Otaheite ; but fruits and roots they roaft on the fire, and after takingoff the rind, or fkin, put them into a platter or trough with water, out of which bothmen and hogs eat at the fame time. The captain fays, he faw them make a batter offruit and roots, diluted with water, in a veffel that was loaded with dirt, and out ofwhich the hogs had been but that moment eating, without giving it the leaft wafting,or even waffling their hands, which were equally dirty ; and when he expreffed diflike,was laughed at.

Hogs are the only quadrupeds they faw; and cocks and hens the only tame fowls*However, the woods feemed to abound with fmall birds of a very beautiful plumage*and fine notes; but the fear of alarming the natives, hindered them from fhooting f°many of them as might otherwife have been done.

With a fine eafterly wind they fteered fouth-weft, fouth-weft-by-weft, and weft-by*fouth, till the 17th, at ten o’clock in the morning, when land was feen bearing weft*half-north, which upon a nearer approach, they found to be a ftring of low iflets, con-nected together by a reef of coral rocks.

As they fteered along the coaft, the natives appeared in feveral places, armed withlong fpears and clubs, and fome were got together on one fide of the creek'. Thecaptain fent two boats well armed alhore under the command of Lieutenant Cooper*

with a view of having fome intercourfe with them, and. to give Mr. Forfter an opp°/'

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