Friday 7.

1765. as a menace that they would kill us, if we venJune. tured 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 fastened feveral things that fluttered in the air, and that fome of them were every moment kneeling down before them, as we fuppofed, invoking the affiftance of fome invisible Being to defend them again ft us. While I was thus circumnavigating the inland with the fhip, I fent the boats out again to found, and when they came near the fhore, the Indians fet up one of the most hideous yells I had ever heard, pointing at the fame time to their fpears, and poifing in their hands large ftones 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 feemed 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, and would fain have fired upon them; but the officer on board, having no permiffion from me to commit any hoftilities, reftrained them, I fhould indeed

June.

Friday 7.

have thought myself at liberty to have obtained by 1765.
force the refreshments, for want of which our
people were dying, if it had been poffible to have
come to an anchor, fuppofing we could not have
made these poor favages our friends; but nothing
could justify the taking away their lives for a mere
imaginary or intentional injury, without procuring
the least advantage to ourselves. They were of a
deep copper colour, exceedingly ftout and well-
limbed, and remarkably nimble and active, for I
never saw men run fo faft in my life. This ifland
lies in latitude 14° 5' S., longitude 145° 4′ W.
from the meridian of London. As the boats re-
ported a fecond time that there was no anchoring
ground about this island, I determined to work up
to the other, which was accordingly done all the
reft of the day and the following night.

At fix o'clock in the morning of the 8th, we Saturday 8,
brought to on the weft fide of it, at the distance of
about three quarters of a mile from the shore, 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 be-
ing joined one to the other by a neck of land, very
narrow, and almost level with the surface of the
water, which breaks high over it. In approaching
these islands the cocoa-nut trees are firft difcovered,
as they are higher than any part of the furface. I
sent a boat with an officer from each ship to found
the lee-fide of these islands for an anchoring-place;
and as soon as they left the ship, I saw the Indians
run down to the beach in great numbers, armed
with

I 2

1765. with long fpears and clubs; they kept abreast of June. the boats as they went founding along the shore, Saturday 8. and used many threatening gestures 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 close in with the furf, which broke very high upon the fhore. The middle of this cluster of islands lies in latitude 14o 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 weftward, finding it impoffible to procure at these islands any refreshment for our fick, whofe fituation was becoming more deplorable every hour, and I therefore called them the ISLANDS OF DISAPPOINTMENT.

CHAP.

CHA P. IX.

The Discovery of King George's lands, with a Defcription of them, and an Account of Several Incidents that happened there.

A

1765.

June.

T half an hour after five o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th, we faw land again, bearing W. S. W. at the diftance of fix or feven leagues; Sunday 9. and at feven we brought to for the night. In the morning, being within three miles of the fhore, we Monday 10. discovered it to be a long low ifland, with a white beach, of a pleasant appearance, full of cocoa-nut and other trees, and furrounded with a rock of red coral. We stood along the north-east side of it, within half a mile of the fhore; and the favages, as foon as they faw 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 oppofite fhore. Into this lagoon we saw a small inlet about a league from the fouth-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 imme

I 3

1765. immediately fent off the boats, with an officer in June. each, to found; but they could find no anchorMonday ro. age, the shore being every where as steep as a wall, except at the very mouth of the inlet, which was fcarcely a fhip's length wide, and there they had thirteen fathom, with a bottom of coral rock. We stood close in with the fhips, and faw hundreds of the favages, ranged in very good order, and standing up to their waifts in water; they were all armed in the fame manner as those that we had seen at the other islands, and one of them carried a piece of mat fastened to the top of a pole, which we imagined was an enfign. They made a most hideous and inceffant noise, and in a short time many large canoes came down the lake to join them. Our boats were still out, and the people on board them made all the figns of friendship that they could invent, upon which fome of the canoes came through the inlet and drew near them. We now began to hope that a friendly intercourfe might be established; but we foon discovered that the Indians had no other defign than to haul the boats on fhore: many of them leaped off the rocks, and fwam to them; and one of them got into that which belonged to the Tamar, and in the twinkling of an eye feized a seaman's jacket, and jumping over board with it, never once appeared above water till he was clofe in fhore among his companions. Another of them got hold of a midshipman's hat, but not knowing how to take it off, he pulled it downward instead of lifting it up; fo that the owner had time to prevent its being taken away, otherwise it would

probably