second voyage, he obtained still stronger evidence of what he expressly
calls their "great liking for this kind of food," his former account of
their indulgence in which had been discredited, he tells us, by many.
Some of the officers of the ship having gone one afternoon on shore,
observed the head and bowels of a youth, who had been lately killed,
lying on the beach; and one of them, having purchased the head, brought
it on board. A piece of the flesh having then been broiled and given to
one of the natives, he ate it immediately in the presence of all the
officers and most of the men. Nothing is said of any aversion he seemed
to feel to the shocking repast. Nay, when, upon Cook's return on board,
for he had been at this time absent on shore, another piece of the flesh
was broiled and brought to the quarter-deck, that he also might be an
eye-witness of what his officers had already seen, one of the New
Zealanders, he tells us, "ate it with surprising avidity. This," he
adds, "had such an effect on some of our people as to make them sick."

Of the persons who sailed with Cook, no one seems eventually to have
retained a doubt as to the prevalence of cannibalism among these
savages. Mr. Burney, who had been long sceptical, was at last convinced
of the fact, by what he observed when he went to look after the crew of
the "Adventure's" boat who had been killed in Grass Cove; and both the
elder and the younger Forster, who accompanied Cook on his second
voyage, express their participation in the general belief. John Ledyard,
who was afterwards distinguished as an adventurous African traveller,
but who sailed with Cook in the capacity of a corporal of marines, bears
testimony to the same fact.

It thus appears that the testimony of those who have actually visited
New Zealand, in so far as it has been recorded, is unanimous upon this
head.