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17-67. followed them in tlieir canoes all along the reef till they goe
. to-thebreach, and then feeing them clear, and making way
SunSay. 16. £ag towar(js the- fhip, they returned.
About fix in the evening, it being then dark, the boats returned,
and the Matter told me, that all! within the reef was
rocky, but that in two or' three places, at about two.
cables’ length without it, there was anchorage in i8, 14, and
12 fathom, upon fand and coral. The breach in tire reef he
found to be about 60 fathom broad, and here;, i f prefied by.
neceffity,. he faid a fhip might anchor, or moor in S fath om;
but that it would not be fafe to moor with a, greater length
than half a cable.
When I.had hoifted the boats in, I ran down fou r miles to
leeward, where we lay till the morning; and then, finding
that the curent had fet us out o f fight o f the iflandr, I made
fail. The officers did me the honour to call this, ifland after
Wallis’, my name- W a l l i s ’s Is l an d . lies in latitude 13° 18'S. longi-
Illand. tude 177° W.
As the latitudes and longitudes of all thefe iflands are accurately
laid down, and plans of them delivered in to the
Admiralty, it wall be eafy for any Hup, that fhall hereafter
navigate thefe feas, to find any o f them, either to refrefh o r
to make farther difcoveries o f their- produce..
I thought it very remarkable, that although we found no
kind of metal in any of thefe iflands, yet the inhabitants o f
all of them, the moment they got a piece of iron in their
pofieffion, began to fharpen it, but made no fuch attempt
on brafs or copper.
We continued to fleer N. wefterly, and many birds were
Friday 18. from time to time feen about the fhip till the 28th, when
her longitude being, by obfervation, 187° 24' W. we crofled
the line into North latitude. Among the birds that came
about, the fhip, one which we caught exaftly refem-
bled a dove in fize, fhape, and colour. It had red legs,
9 and
W a l l i s ’s I s l a n d s .