On the 22d, in the evening, several canoes, full of people, some of whom we saw the night before, came on board, brought us some provisions, and parted very readily with their cloaths, and any thing they had about them, for pieces of waste paper and Otaheite cloth, which they put about their heads and ears, and were very proud of their dress.

The wind being still against us, we were obliged to tide it down the river, and anchored between tides, and passed a point of land which we called Point Rodney.

The next day, being the 23d, we had heavy rains, accompanied with thunder.

On the 24th, we had a smart breeze from the S. W. and, sailing along shore, passed between the main and a number of islands of several sizes. The appearance of the coast was very different at different places; well cloathed and verdant in some parts, and barren in others; but we saw no signs of inhabitants in any. We anchored in an open bay, and caught a great number of large fishes of the scienna or bream kind; we therefore named this Bream Bay; and the two extreme points which formed it, Bream Head and Bream Tail. Off this bay lies a parcel of rocks, to which we gave the appellation of the Hen and Chickens.

On the 25th, we had clear weather, with the wind at S. W. The coast we passed along that day was mostly level, having but few signs of inhabitants: toward night several large canoes came off to us, filled with people, armed with a variety of weapons; they paddled round the ship, singing and dancing; sometimes grinning, and then threatening: we trafficked with them for some things; but they went off with some others, meaning to take an advantage of us. While they were parlying among themselves we fired several muskets at them, loaded with small shot, which they attempted to skreen themselves from with their ahavos, or cloaks. We fired again, and splintered one of their canoes, which seemed to alarm them much, and they paddled away from us as fast as possible, till they thought themselves out of our reach, and then they stopped and threatened us; but we fired a great gun, which so thoroughly disconcerted them, that they made the best of their way to the shore. These people were much like them we had seen heretofore, excepting that they were more tataowed: most of them had the figure of volutes on their lips, and several had their legs, thighs, and part of their bellies, marked. One woman, in particular, was very curiously tataowed. The tataow upon their faces was not done in spirals, but in different figures from what we had ever seen before.

Voyaging Accounts