stern, and absolutely refused to restore it, though we afterward purchased it from them.  Those who were about our ship behaved in the same daring manner; for they 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 they were subject to Teerevatooeah, king of Wateeoo.[155] According to the account that they gave, their articles of food are cocoa-nuts, fish, and turtle; the island not producing plantains, or bread-fruit, and being destitute of hogs and dogs.  Their canoes, of which near thirty were, at one time, in sight, are pretty large, and well built.  In the construction of the stern, they bear some resemblance to those of Wateeoo; and the head projects out nearly in the same manner, but the extremity is turned up instead of down.