Free Life and Adventures 1776-1801 by John Nicol Page A

women are far from being objects of desire, they are so much disfigured by slitting their lips and placing large pieces of wood in them shaped like a saucer. I have seen them place berries upon it, and shake them into their mouth as a horse would corn out of a mouth-bag, or lick them in with their tongue. The men have a bone eight inches long, polished and stuck through the gristle of their nose. We called it their sprit-sailyard. We had suffered a good deal of hardship on this coast, and bade it adieu with joy.
    Soon as we arrived at Owhyee our old acquaintance flocked on board to welcome us, each with apresent. Then such a touching of noses and shaking of hands took place. ‘Honi, honi’ —that is, touch nose, and ‘How are you?’—were the only words to be heard. Our deck was one continued scene of joy. I was now picking up the language pretty fast and could buy and sell in it, and knew a great number of words that were very useful to me. There is a great likeness in many of their words to the Latin:
    Sandwich Islands
English
terra
earth
nuna
moon
sola
sun
oma
man
leo
dog
    Noue is their word for large, maccou for a fish-hook. When they saw our anchors they held up their hands and said, ‘Noue maccou.’ During our wintering this second time, almost the same scenes were re-acted.
    Having refitted and taken in provisions, we again set sail for Cook’s River, Prince William’s and Nootka Sound to obtain more fur skins. We were pretty successful. While on shore in Prince William’s Sound, brewing spruce beer, I and the quartermaster made an excursion up the river and discovered a large space covered with snake-root, which is of great value in China. 37 My comrade, who had been in China,informed me of its value. It is the sweetest smelling plant I ever was near when it is growing. We set to work and dug up as much as we chose and dried it, letting no one know, for lessening the value of what we got. It was got safe on board the day before we sailed and we sold it well at Wampoa. 38
    We parted company from the Queen Charlotte. She had been absent for a long time. When a party of Indians came to the King George, having in their possession a pair of buckles that belonged to one of the people on board our consort, we became alarmed for her, thinking she had been cut off. We immediately set sail for Nootka Sound, leaving a large quantity of salmon half dried. After waiting in Nootka Sound, our place of rendezvous, for some time, and she not appearing, we immediately set sail for Owhyee, but got no word of our consort until we came to Atooi, when we perceived Abenoue in his single canoe, making her scud through the water, crying, ‘Tattoo for Potipoti,’ as he jumped upon deck with a letter from Captain Dixon, which removed our fears and informed us he had discovered an island and got a very great number of skins and had sailed for China. We watered and laid in our provisions as quick as we could to follow her.
    Abenoue, soon after he came on board, told the captain he had seen Billicany, and squinted so like Dickson we knew at once Mairs had been there in the Nootka. Dickson afterwards told us Mairs would not have got anything from Abenoue had he and Willis not been with him.
    Abenoue had a son called Poinoue—in English ‘Large Pudding’. I thought him well named. He had the largest head of any boy I ever saw. His father wished Captain Portlock to take him to England but Poinoue did not wish to go. He leapt overboard just as we sailed and swam back to his father.
    It was with a sensation of regret I bade a final adieu to the Sandwich Islands. Even now I would prefer them to any country I ever was in. The people so kind and obliging, the climate so fine and provisions so abundant—all render it a most endearing place.
    Owhyee is the only place I was not ashore in. Captain Portlock never went himself and would not allow his crew to go. The murder of Cook made him timorous of trusting too much to the islanders. At Atooi