that were at least fixteen feet long. They presently made feveral large fires, which we fuppofed to be a fignal; for we immediately perceived feveral fires upon the larger island that was to windward of us, by which we knew that alfo to be inhabited. I fent the boat with an officer to look for an anchoring-place, who, to our great regret and disappointment, returned with an account that he had been all round the island, and that no bottom could be found within less than a cable's length of the shore, which was furrounded close to the beach with a steep coral rock. The fcurvy by this time had made dreadful havock among us, many of my best men being now confined to their hammocks; the poor wretches who were able to crawl upon the deck, stood gazing at this little paradise which Nature had forbidden them to enter, with fenfations which cannot easily be conceived; they faw cocoa-nuts in great abundance, the milk of which is perhaps the most powerful antifcorbutic in the world: they had reafon to fuppofe that there were limes; bananas, and other fruits which are generally found between the tropics; and to increase their mortification they faw the fhells of many turtle scattered about the fhore. These refreshments, indeed, for want of which they were languishing to death, were as effectually beyond their reach as if there had been half the circumference of the world between them; yet their being in fight, was no inconfiderable increase of the distress which they suffered by the want of them. Their fituation in itself indeed was no worse than it would have been if the obstacle to their wishes had been distance, and not a reef of rocks; and both being alike infuperable, a Being wholly under the influence of reafon, would, by both, have been equally affected; but this. is a fituation, among many others, that may be remarked by a diligent observer, in which reason cannot preserve mankind 1765. June. Friday 7. 1765. June. Friday 7. kind from the power which fancy is perpetually exerting to aggravate the calamities of life. When I knew the foundings, I could not forbear standing close round the island with the ship, though I alfo knew it was impoffible to procure any of the refreshments which it produced. The natives ran along the fhore abreast of the fhip, fhouting and dancing; they alfo frequently brandifhed their long fpears, and then threw themselves backward, and lay a few minutes motionlefs, as if they had been dead: this we understood as a menace that they would kill us, if we ventured to go on fhore. As we were failing along the coaft, we took notice that in one place the natives had fixed upright in the fand two fpears, to the top of which they had faftened several things that fluttered in the air, and that fome of them were every moment kneeling down before them, as we fuppofed, invoking the affistance of fome invisible Being to defend them against While I was thus circumnavigating the island with the ship, I fent the boats out again to sound, and when they came near the shore, the Indians fet up one of the most hideous yells I had ever heard, pointing at the fame time to their spears, and poising in their hands large flones which they took up from the beach. Our men on the contrary made all the figns of amity and good-will that they could devife, and at the fame time threw them bread and many other things, none of which they vouchfafed fo much as to touch, but with great expedition hauled five or fix large canoes, which we faw lying upon the beach, up into the wood. When this was done, they waded into the water and seemed to watch for an opportunity of laying hold of the boat, that they might drag her on fhore: the people on board her, apprehending that this was their defign, and that if they got them on fhore they would certainly put them to death, were very impatient to be before-hand with them, us. and and would fain have fired upon them; but the officer on 1765. June. Friday 7. At fix o'clock in the morning of the 8th, we brought to Saturday 8. on the weft fide of it, at the distance of about three quarters of a mile from the fhore, but we had no foundings with one hundred and forty fathom of line. We now perceived several other low islands, or rather peninfulas, most of them being joined one to the other by a neck of land, very narrow, and almost level with the furface of the water, which breaks high over it. In approaching these islands the cocoanut trees are first discovered, as they are higher than any part of the surface. I fent a boat with an officer from cach ship to found the lee-fide of these islands for an anchoringplace; and as foon as they left the fhip, I faw the Indians run down to the beach in great numbers, armed with long fpears and clubs: they kept abreast of the boats as they went founding along the fhore, and ufed many threatning geftures 9 1 1765. June. Saturday 8. geftures to prevent their landing, I therefore fired a nine pound fhot from the ship over their heads, upon which they ran into the woods with great precipitation. At ten o'clock the boats returned, but could get no foundings clofe in with the furf, which broke very high upon the fhore. The middle of this clufter of iflands lies in latitude 14° 10′ S., longitude 144° 52′ W.; the variation of the compass was here 4° 30′ E. At half an hour after ten, we bore away and made fail to the westward, finding it impoffible to procure at these islands any refreshment for our fick, whose fituation was becoming more deplorable every hour, and I therefore called them the ISLANDS OF DISAPPOINTMENT. С НА Р. CHA P. IX. The Discovery of King George's Islands, with a Defcription of them, and an Account of feveral Incidents A that happened there. in 1765. June. Sunday 9. T half an hour after five o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th, we saw land again, bearing W. S. W. at the distance of fix or seven leagues; and at seven we brought to for the night. In the morning, being within three miles Monday 10. of the shore, we difcovered it to be a long low island, with a white beach, of a pleasant appearance, full of cocoa-nut and other trees, and furrounded with a rock of red coral. We ftood along the north eaft fide of it, within half a mile of the shore; and the favages, as foon as they saw us, made great fires, as we fuppofed, to alarm the diftant inhabitants of the island, and ran along the beach, abreast of the ship, in great numbers, armed in the fame manner as the natives of the Islands of Difappointment. Over the land on this fide of the island we could fee a large lake of falt water, or lagoon, which appeared to be two or three leagues wide, and to reach within a small distance of the opposite shore. Into this lagoon we saw a small inlet about a league from the south west point, off which we brought to. At this place the natives have built a little town, under the fhade of a fine grove of cocoa-nut trees. I immediately fent off the boats, with an officer in each, to found; but they could find no anchorage, the fhore being every where as steep as a wall, except at the very mouth of the inlet, which was scarcely VOL. I. |