holding a branch of Kava in his hand.  “We knew from what we had read of several voyages that it was a token of peace; and throwing him some pieces of cloth we answered by the word ‘Tayo,’ which signified ‘friend’ in the dialect of the South Sea Islands; but we were not sufficiently experienced to understand and pronounce distinctly the words of the vocabularies we had extracted from Cook.”

Nearly all the early navigators made a feature of compiling vocabularies of native words, and Cook devoted particular care to this task.  Dr. Walter Roth, formerly protector of Queensland aboriginals a trained observer, has borne testimony as recently as last year (in the times, December 29, 1911) that a list of words collected from Endeavour Strait blacks, and “given by Captain Cook, are all more or less recognisable at the present day.”  But Cook’s spellings were intended to be pronounced in the English mode.  Laperouse and his companions by giving the vowels French values would hardly be likely to make the English navigator’s vocabularies intelligible.

The native canoes amused the French captain.  They “could be of use only to people who are expert swimmers, for they are constantly turned over.  This is an accident, however, at which they feel less surprise and anxiety than we should at a hat’s blowing off.  They lift the canoe on their shoulders, and after they have emptied it of the water, get into it again, well assured that they will have the same operation to perform within half an hour, for it is as difficult to preserve a balance in these ticklish things as to dance upon a rope.”

At Mauna Island (now called Tutuila) some successful bargaining was done with glass beads in exchange for pork and fruits.  It surprised Laperouse that the natives chose these paltry ornaments rather than hatchets and tools.  “They preferred a few beads which could be of no utility, to anything we could offer them in iron or cloth.”

Two days later a tragedy occurred at this island, when Captain de Langle, the commander of the astrolabe, and eleven of the crew were murdered.  He made an excursion inland to look for fresh water, and found a clear, cool spring in the vicinity of a village.  The ships were not urgently in need of water, but de Langle “had embraced the system of Cook, and thought fresh water a hundred times preferable to what had been some time in the hold.  As some of his crew had slight symptoms of scurvy, he thought, with justice, that we owed them every means of alleviation in our power.  Besides, no island could be compared with this for abundance of provisions.  The two ships had already procured upwards of 500 hogs, with a large quantity of fowls, pigeons and fruits; and all these had cost us only a few beads.”

Laperouse himself doubted the prudence of sending a party inland, as he had observed signs of a turbulent spirit among the islanders.  But de Langle insisted on the desirableness of obtaining fresh water where it was abundant, and “replied to me that my refusal would render me responsible for the progress of the scurvy, which began to appear with some violence.”  He undertook to go at the head of the party, and, relying on his judgment, the commander consented.