1765. June. Saturday 8. geftures to prevent their landing, I therefore fired a nine pound shot 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 shore. 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 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 Islands, with a Defcription of them, and an Account of feveral Incidents A that happened there. 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 feven leagues; and at seven we brought to for the night. In the morning, being within three miles Monday 10. of the fhore, 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 faw us, made great fires, as we fuppofed, to alarm the distant 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 Disappointment. 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 faw 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 immediately sent 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 fcarcely VOL. I. 1765. June. Monday 10. fcarcely a fhip's length wide, and there they had thirteen fathom, with a bottom of coral rock. We ftood close in with the ships, 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 feen 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 fhort 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 some 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 design 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 feaman's jacket, and jumping overboard with it, never once appeared above water till he was close 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 have disappeared as fuddenly as the jacket;. our men bore all this with much patience, and the Indians feemed to triumph in their impunity. About noon, finding there was no anchorage here, I'bore away and fteered along the fhore to the weftermoft point of the island: the boats immediately followed us, and kept founding close to the beach, but could get no ground. When 1765.. June. When we came to the westermoft point of this island, we faw another, bearing S. W. by W. about four leagues diftant. We were at this time about a league beyond the inlet where Monday 10. we had left the natives, but they were not fatisfied with having got rid of us quietly; for I now perceived two large double canoes failing after the fhip, with about thirty men in each, all armed after the manner of their country. The boats were a good way to leeward of us, and the canoes' paffing between the fhip and the shore, feemed very eagerly to give them chace. Upon this I made the signal for the boats to speak with the canoes, and as foon as they perceived it, they turned, and made towards the Indians, who feeing this, were feized with a fudden pannic, and immediately hauling down their fails, paddled back again at a furprising rate. Our boats however came up with them; but not withstanding the dreadful furf that broke upon the shore, the canoes pushed through it, and the Indians immediately hauled them up upon the beach. Our boats followed them, and the Indians, dreading an invafion of their coaft, prepared to defend it with clubs and flones, upon which our men fired, and killed two or three of them: one of them received three balls which went quite through his body; yet he afterwards took up a large ftone, and died in the action of throwing it against his enemy. This man fell close to our boats, fo that the Indians who remained unhurt did not dare to attempt the carrying off his body, which gave us an opportunity to examine it; but they carried off the rest of their dead, and made the best of their way back to their companions at the inlet. Our boats then returned, and brought off the two canoes which they had purfued. One of them was thirty-two feet long, and the other somewhat lefs, but they were both of a very curious conftruction, and 1765. June. Monday 10. must have coft thofe who made them infinite labour. They confifted of planks exceedingly well wrought, and in many places adorned with carving; these planks were fewed together, and over every feam there was a ftrip of tortoisefhell, very artificially fastened, to keep out the weather: their bottoms were as fharp as a wedge, and they were very narrow; and therefore two of them were joined laterally together by a couple of ftrong fpars,. fo that there was a space of about fix or eight feet between them: a mast was hoisted in each of them, and the fail was spread between the masts: the fail, which I preserved, and which is now in my possesfion, is made of matting, and is as neat a piece of work as ever I faw their paddles were very curious, and their cordage was as good and as well laid as any in England, though it appeared to be made of the outer covering of the cocoaWhen thefe veffels fail, feveral men fit upon the spars which hold the canoes together.. nut. As the furf which broke very high upon the shore rendered it impoffible to procure refreshments for the fick in this part of the island, I hauled the wind, and worked back to the inlet, being determined to try once more what could be done there. I recovered that flation in the afternoon, and immediately fent the boats to found the inlet again, but they confirmed the account which had been made before, that it afforded no anchorage for a fhip. While the boats were absent, I observed a great number of the natives upon the point near the spot where we had left them in the morning, and they seemed to be very busy in loading a great number of large canoes which lay close to the beach. As I thought they might be troublesome, and was unwilling that they should fuffer by |