On the 16th, we had several fisher canoes come to us; and, after much persuasion, they gave us some fish for cloth and trinkets; but none of their fish was quite fresh, and some of it stank intolerably. They went away very well satisfied, and then a larger canoe, full of people, came up to us, having their faces shock-ingly besmeared with some paint. An old man, who sat in the stern, had on a gar-ment of some beast's skin, with long hair, dark brown, and white border, which we would have purchased, but they were not willing to part with any thing. When the captain threw them apiece of red baize for it, they paddled away immediately; held a conference with the fishers boats, and then returned to the ship. We had laid a scheme to trepan them, intending to have thrown a running bow line about the head of the canoe, and to have hoisted her up to the anchor; but, just as we had got her a-head for that purpose, they seized Toobaiah's little boy, who was in the main-chains, and made off with him, which prevented the execution of our plan. We fired some muskets and great guns at them, and killed several of them. The boy, soon after, disingaged himself from them, jumped into the sea, swam toward the ship, and we lowered down a boat and took him up, while the canoes made to land as fast as possible.

The speech of these people was not so guttural as the others, for they spoke more like the Otaheiteans. Many of them had good faces; their noses rather high than flat; and some of them had their hair most curiously brought up to their crowns, rolled round, and knotted.

In the evening, we were over-against a point of land, which, from the circumstance of stealing the boy, we called Cape Kidnappers. On doubling the cape, we thought to have met with a snug bay, but were disappointed, the land tending away to a point southward. Soon after we saw a small island, which, from its desolate appearance, we called Bare Island.

Voyaging Accounts