1767. June. grappling, upon which he instantly let it go, with marks of great terror and astonishment ; the people on fhore alfo let go the rope. The boats after this, lay fome time upon their oars; but the officer finding that he could get nothing more, returned on board. Mr. Furneaux told me that both men and women were cloathed, and he brought a piece of their cloth away with him. The inhabitants appeared to him to be more numerous than the island could fupport, and for this reason, especially as he faw fome large double canoes upon the beach, he imagined there were islands of larger extent, not far diftant, where refreshments in greater plenty might be procured, and hoped that they might be lefs difficult of accefs. As I thought this a reasonable conjecture, I hoifted in the boats, and de-termined to run farther to the weftward. To this place, which is nearly circular, and about two miles over, I gave the name of OS NABURGH ISLAND, in honour of Ofnaburgh Prince Frederick, who is bishop of that fee. It lies in latitude 170 51 S. and longitude 147° 30' W. the variation here was 7° 10' E. СНА Р. V. An account of the Difcovery of King George the Third's Ifland, or Otaheite, and of feveral incidents which happened both on board the Ship, and on Shore. A Island. T two o'clock, the fame day, we bore away, and Thursd. 18. in about half an hour, difcovered very high land in the W. S. W. At feven in the evening, Ofnaburgh Ifland bore E. N. E. and the new discovered land, from W. N. W. to W. by S. As the weather was thick and fqually, we brought to for the night, or at least till the fog fhould break away. At two in the morning, it be- Friday 19. ing very clear, we made fail again; at day-break we faw the land, at about five leagues distance, and steered directly for it; but at eight o'clock, when we were clofe under it, the fog obliged us again to lie to, and when it cleared away, we were much surprised to find ourselves furrounded by fome hundreds of canoes. They were of different fizes, and had on board different numbers from one to ten, fo that in all of them together, 1767. June. gether, there could not be lefs than eight hundred rally rally detected them in the attempt. At last, however, one of the midshipmen happened to come where they were standing with a new laced hat upon his head, and began to talk to one of them by figns: while he was thus engaged, another of them came behind him, and fuddenly fnatching off the hat, leapt over the taffarel into the sea, and fwam away with it. As we had no anchorage here, we stood along the fhore, fending the boats at the fame time to found at a lefs distance. As none of these canoes had fails, they could not keep up with us, and therefore foon paddled back towards the fhore. The country has the most delightful and romantic appearance that can be imagined: towards the fea it is level, and is covered with fruit trees of various kinds, particularly the cocoa-nut. Among these are the houses of the inhabitants, confifting only of a roof, and at a distance having greatly the appearance of a long barn. The country within, at about the distance of three miles, rifes into lofty hills, that are crowned with wood, and terminate in peaks, from which large rivers are precipitated into the fea. We faw no fhoals, but found the island skirted by a reef of rocks, through which there are feveral openings into deep water. About three o'clock in the afternoon we brought to, a-breast of a large bay, where there was an appearance of anchorage. The boats were immediately fent to found it, and while they were thus employed, I obferved a great number of canoes gather round them. I fufpected that the Indians had a defign to attack them, and as I was very defirous to prevent mischief, I made a fignal for the boats to come a-board, and at the fame time, to intimidate the Indians, I fired a nine-pounder over their heads. As foon as the cutter began to ftand toward the fhip, the Indians in their canoes, though they had been ftartled by the thunder of our nine-pounder, endeavoured to cut her off. The boat, however, failing faster than the canoes could paddle, foon got clear of those that were about her; but fome others, that were full of men, way-laid her in her course, and threw several stones into her, which wounded fome of the people. Upon this the Officer on board fired a mufquet, loaded with buck-fhot, at the man who 1767. June. 1767. who threw the firft ftone, and wounded him in the June. fhoulder. The reft of the people in the canoes, as foon as they perceived their companion wounded, leapt into the fea, and the other canoes, paddled away, in great terror and confufion. As foon as the boats reached the ship, they were hoisted on board, and just as fhe was about to stand on, we observed a large canoe under fail, making after us. As I thought the might have fome Chief on board, or might have been difpatched to bring me a meffage from fome chief, I determined to wait for her. She failed very faft, and was foon along-fide the fhip, but we did not observe among those on board any one that feemed to have an authority over the reft. One of them, however, ftood up, and having made a fpeech, which continued about five minutes, threw on board a branch of the plantain tree. We understood this to be a token of peace, and we returned it, by handing over one of the branches of plantain that had been left on board by our first visitors: with this and fome toys, that were afterwards prefented to him, he appeared to be much gratified, and after a fhort time went away. The officers who had been sent out with the boats, informed me that they had founded close to the reef, and found as great a depth of water as at the other islands however, as I was now on the weather fide of the island, I had reafon to expect anchorage in running to leeward. I therefore took this course, but finding breakers that ran off to a great distance from the fouth end of the island, I hauled the wind, and continued turning to windward all night, in order to run down on the eaft fide of the island. At five o'clock in the morning we made fail, the land bearing N. W. by W. diftant to leagues; and there feemed to be land five leagues beyond it, to the N. E. a remarkable peak, like a fugar loaf, bore N. N. E. when we were about two leagues from the fhore, which afforded a most delightful profpect, and was full of houses and inhabitants. We saw several large canoes near the fhore, under fail, but they did not steer towards the fhip. At noon, we were within two or three miles of the island, and then it bore from S. W. |