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Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vols. II - III

Table of Contents On this day ... 6 April 1769 Endeavour Voyage Maps James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia Transcript of Cook's Journal Joseph Banks's Journal Sydney Parkinson's Journal From cape Horn to the South Seas Index Search Contact us

From cape Horn to the South Seas (continued) According to the best judgment that we could form of the people when we were nearest the shore, they were about our size, and well-made. They were of a brown complexion, and appeared to be naked; their hair, which was black, was confined by a fillet that went round the head, and stuck out behind like a bush. The greater part of them carried in their hands two weapons; one of them was a slender pole, from ten to fourteen feet long, on one end of which was a small knob, not unlike the point of a spear; the other was about four feet long, and shaped like a paddle, and possibly might be so, for some of their canoes were very small: those which we saw them launch seemed not intended to carry more than the three men that got into them: we saw others that had on board six or seven men, and one of them hoisted a sail which did not seem to reach more than six feet above the gunwale of the boat, and which, upon the falling of a slight shower, was taken down and converted into an awning or tilt. The canoe which followed us to sea hoisted a sail not unlike an English lug-sail, and almost as lofty as an English boat of the same size would have carried. Voyaging Accounts © Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 76 - 77, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/077.html