On this day ...
17 September 1770
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
New Guinea to Savu
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After the boat had been ashore about an hour and a half, she made the signal for having intelligence that there was a bay to leeward, where we might anchor: we stood away directly for it, and the boat following, soon came on board. The Lieutenant told us, that he had seen some of the principal people, who were dressed in fine linen, and had chains of gold round their necks: he said, that he had not been able to trade, because the owner of the cocoa-nuts was absent, but that about two dozen had been sent to the boat as a present, and that some linen had been accepted in return. The people, to give him the information that he wanted, drew a map upon the sand, in which they made a rude representation of a harbour to leeward, and a town near it: they also gave him to understand, that sheep, hogs, fowls, and fruit might there be procured in great plenty. Some of them frequently pronounced the word Portuguese, and said something of Larntuca, upon the island of Ende: from this circumstance, we conjectured that there were Portuguese somewhere upon the island, and a Portuguese, who was in our boat, attempted to converse with the Indians in that language, but soon found that they knew only a word or two of it by rote: one of them however, when they were giving our people to understand that there was a town near the harbour to which they had directed us, intimated, that as a token of going right, we should see somewhat, which he expressed by crossing his fingers, and the Portuguese instantly conceived that be meant to express a cross. Just as our people were putting off, the horseman in the European dress came up, but the officer not having his commission about him, thought it best to decline a conference.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 670 - 671, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
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