June. Friday 7. 1765. as a menace that they would kill us, if we ventured to go on fhore. As we were failing along the coast, 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 some invisible Being to defend them against us. While I was thus circumnavigating the island with the fhip, I fent the boats out again to found, 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 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 devise, 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, and would fain have fired upon them; but the officer on board, having no permiffion from me to commit any hoftilities, restrained them, I should indeed 1765. June. have thought myself at liberty to have obtained by force the refreshments, for want of which our people were dying, if it had been poffible to have Friday 7come 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 welllimbed, and remarkably nimble and active, for I never faw 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 reported 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 fhore, but we had no foundings with one hundred and forty fathom of line. We now perceived feveral 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 cocoa-nut trees are first discovered, as they are higher than any part of the furface. I fent a boat with an officer from each ship to found the lee-fide of these islands for an anchoring-place; and as foon as they left the fhip, I saw the Indians run down to the beach in great numbers, armed I 2 with June. Saturday 8. 1765. with long fpears and clubs; they kept abreast of the boats as they went founding along the shore, and used many threatening gestures 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 fhore. The middle of this cluster of islands 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. CHAP. IX. The Discovery of King George's Ilands, with Defcription of them, and an Account of feveral Incidents that happened there. A 1765. June. Sunday 9. 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; 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-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 fupposed, to alarm the diftant inhabitants of the island, and ran along the beach, abreast of the fhip, 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 salt 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 fmall 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 June, 1765. immediately fent off the boats, with an officer in each, to found; but they could find no anchorMonday 1o. age, the fhore 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 flood 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 thofe 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 molt 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 friendfhip 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 intercourse might be eftablished; but we foon difcovered 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 . |