Side, with whatever vegetables, poultry, and other
articles they might wish to sell. The articles mostly demanded by
them in return, were pieces of iron-hoop, knives, and nails. At
first, a piece of iron-hoop about six inches long, would purchase a
pair of fowls or four yams, so great was the value which the natives
attached to iron.
The business of forming a new settlement, is a species of service
that requires the exercise of certain qualities of the mind, which it
is not the good fortune of every one to possess. In addition to the
pernicious effects of the climate on European constitutions, there
were people on the island, who, although they might be unable to
offer any serious impediment to the progress of the settlement, it
was necessary to conciliate than treat them with hostility, and for
this, no one could have been better calculated than Captain Owen.
Whatever may have induced him to relinquish the appointment of
governor, no measures for gaining the friendship of the natives, and
thereby securing their good will towards the colony, could have been
better than those which he adopted, and the chiefs even now
frequently mention his name.
The part selected as the site of the proposed settlement, was on the
northern side of the island on the borders of a small cove, formed by
a narrow neck of land projecting out from the shore on the eastern
side of it.
