mI”ch we found an entire fkeleton of a man. A good view of
Lome of thefe monuments is inferted in captain Cook’s account
of this voyage. Our people fat down on the ground,
and laid their bundles of provifion before them, whilft the
offiers, and other gentlemen with myfelf, converfed with
the natives. One of our failors, who carried my plant-bag,
. in which were a few nails, &c. being lefs careful of his
bundle than the reft, a native fnatched it up and ran off
with it. None of us faw it, except lieutenant Edgecumb,
who immediately fired his mufket, loaded with fmall fliot,
at the thief, and thus gave the alarm to us all. The native
being wounded threw down the bag, which our people recovered,
but he fell foon after; his countrymen took him
up, and fled to a little diftance, till we beckoned to them to
return, which almoft all of them did. Though this was
the only inftance of firing at a native during our flay at
Eafter Ifland, yet it is to be lamented that Europeans too
often aflume the power 'of inflicfling punifhments on people
who are utterly unacquainted with their laws.
“ From this fpot we continued our march a good way
inland, and were condutfled to a deep well, which appeared
to have been formed by art, and contained good frefh water,
though fomewhat troubled. We all drank heartily of it,
and then went on, palling by fe-yeral large ftatues, which
bad been overturned, till we came in fight of the two hummocks,
near which we had perceived the greateft number of
pillars
A V O Y A G E ROUND THE WORLD. S9i
pillars or ftatues, from the Ihip, on the i 2 th. We mount-
ed on an eminence in the neighbourhood, from whence we
beheld the fea on both fides of the ifland, acrofs a plain
which we had likewife difcovered from the Ihip at that
time. We viewed the whole eaftern coaft, and its numerous
pillars, and were convinced that there was no bay or
harbour on that fide of the ifland. With this information
we returned back to a large ftatue, which the natives called
Mangototo, and in the lhade of which we dined. In its neighbourhood
we met with another huge ftatue, which lay overturned
-, it was twenty-feven feet long, and nine feet in diameter,
exceeding in magnitude every other pillar which we
had feen on the ifland.
“ In returning, we flopped once more at the well, and
quenched our thirft, which the raging heat of the fun,
reverberated from barren rocks, had excited. From thence
we directed our march fomething nearer the ridge of hills,
which run along the middle of the ifland, but found the
path more rugged and fatiguing than ever, the country-
being ftrewed with volcanic cinders, and defolate all round
us, though we found many remaining proofs of its having;
been formerly cultivated. I now felt how much I had;
been weakened by the long continuance of the rheumatifm,.
which had crippled all my limbs, and was hardly able to-
keep up with the reft, though I had formerly,, upon fimilar
©ccafions, been indefatigable. The natives' feeing us ftrike;
into»
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