•V/73-
Se PT EM DS
'Sunday z 6 .
•Ôc t ô ë e R,
Friday x.
Saturday 2.
note, had appeared about tile drift the day before we made
this ifland, and might be faid to have announced its proximity,
but though we obferved another of the fame fort
on the 26 th, which actually fettled in the rigging, yet we
did not fall in with another ifland. We held a weflerly
courfe from Hervey’ s Ifle, which lies in 1 9 18 fouth la
titudeand 158° 5 4 weft longitude from. Greenwich, till
the firft of October, when we faw land before us about two
o’ clock in the afternoon. In four hours time we came
within two or three leagues of it,■ 'and found it of a moderate
height ; the hills were covered-^with trees, and offered a
pieafmg, though not magnificent profpea. At the fouth-
weft extremity we obferved a fmall rocky ifler, and to
the northward a low land of greater extent. From
thence we judged, that the ifle before us was the
fame which Abel Janffen Tafman named Middleburg Ifle,
in 1643, and that the other to the.north, was that of
Amfterdam, difcovered by the fame navigator. We lay to
all night, and.with day-break paffed round the S. W. point
of Middleburg Me, and ranged its weftern coaft. There
appeared to be fome low land at the bottom of the hills,
which contained plantations of fine young bananas, whofe
vivid green leaves contrafted admirably with the different
tints of various fhrubberies, and with the brown colour of
the coco palms, which feemed to be the effect of winter.
The
The light was ftill fo faint, that we diftinguifhed feveral octohi.
fires glimmering in the bufhes, but by degrees we likewife
difcerned people running along the fliore. The hills which
were low, and not fo high above the level of the fea as the
Ifle of Wight, were agreeably adorned with fmall clumps
of trees fcattered at fome diftance, and the intermediate
ground appeared covered with herbage, like many parts of.
England. It was not long before we perceived fome of the
inhabitants buffed in launching feveral canoes,, and paddling
towards us. We threw a rope into one of thefe
canoes which ran up clofe to us, and one of the three
people in her came on board, and prefented a root of the
Intoxicating pepper-tree of the South Sea lilands, touched
our nofes with his like the New Zeelanders, in fign of
friendfhip, and then fat down on the deck without fpeaking.
a word. The captain prefented him with a nail, upon
which he immediately held it over his own head, and-
pronounced fagafetai, which was probably an expreflion
of thankfgiving. He was naked to the waift, but from
thence to the knees he had a piece of cloth wrapped about
him, which feemed to be manufacftured much like that of
Taheitee, but was covered' with a brown colour, and a
{hong glue, which made it ftiff, and fit to refill the wet.
His ftature was middle-fized, and his lineaments were mild
and tolerably regular. His colour was much, like that
o f