1774.
June. blackened as the other before mentioned, advanced towards
us with furious fhouts, and fpears in their hands. We
called in friendly terms to them; but to no purpofe.
The captain endeavoured to difcharge bis mufket, but it
miffed fire. He defired us to fire in our own defence, and
the fame thing happened to us all. The natives threw two
fpears : captain Cook narrowly efcaped one of them by
Hooping.; the other Hid along my thigh, marking my
cloaths with the black colour with which it was daubed.
We tried to fire again, and at laft my piece, loaded with fmall
fliot, went off, and Mr. Hodges fired a ball, which did no
execution. At the fame time a regular firing began behind
us from our party, who having obferved our retreat, 'had
likewife viewed another troop of the natives coming down
by a different path to cut us off. The effetft of the fmall
fliot fortunately flopped the natives from rufliingupon us,
and gave us time to retreat to our men; who continued to
fire with great eagernefs, while any of the natives remained
.in fight. Two of thefe in particular, Handing among the
bulhes, brandiflied their weapons in defiance a confiderable
while, but at laft retired, one of them appearing to be
wounded, by the difmal howl which -we heard prefently
after. We now embarked, and refolved to abandon a fet of
people, whom no entreaties.could prevail upon to become
our friends. The nature of their country, which is almoft
inacceflible, feems to have-contributed to make their tempers
fo unfociable. The whole ifland is purely a coral- jggjj.
rock, like that of the low iflands, on which wc faw very
few coco-palms, and no ufeful trees, if have therefore
formed a conjecture, that the interior parts are not fo barren,
but fit for the culture of nutritive vegetables. The general
refemblance of this ifland to a coral ledge railed out*
of the water, almoft leads me to fufpeft that it includes a
fertile plain,. which was once a lagoon. Whether a con-
vulfion of the globe, or any other eaufe, lifted fuch a .
large piece of coral-rock forty feet above water, is a point
which muft be left to future philofophers to determine.
The boats and arms of the natives refembled thofe of f
Tonga-Tabboo, and it is therefore probable that the people
have the fame origin; but their numbers are-in confi-»-
derable, and their civilization little advanced, fince they are
favage, and go naked. Their ifland feems to be about three
leagues long, and was called Savage.Ifland.:. It is fituated
in 19 0 1' S. and 169° 37 'W.
Having reached the flop, the boats were hoifted in, and
the next morning we continued our courfe to the weft-
ward. A large high-finned a whale, which was feen near
the fliip, fpouted up the water, and feveral birds and fifh attended
us as ufual.
On the twenty-fourth at night we lay to, as we expeCted
to be very near A Namoka, or Rotterdam Ifland, one of the
Friendly Ifles difcovered by Talman in 1643. Breakers