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•765i
May..
Tuefday 28.
Friday 31.
June.
Friday 7.
On the 28th, we faw two fine large birds about the fliip,
one o f which was brown and white, and the other black
and white; they wanted much to fettle upon the yards, but
the working o f the fhip frighted them.
On the 31ft, the wind fhifted from N. by W. to N. W. by W.
and the number o f birds that were now about the fhip was
very grea t; from thefe circumftances, and our having loft-
the great fouth weftiwell, I imagined fome land to be near,
and we looked out for it with great diligence, for our people
began now to fall down with the fcurvy very fafL
We faw no land however till one o’clock in the morning
o f Friday the 7th of June, when we were in latitude 14“5' S.,
longitude 1440 58' W.; and obferved the variation to be
4° 30' E. After making the land, I hauled upon a wind under
an eafy fail till the morning, and then a low fmall
ifland bore from us W.S. W. at the diftance of about two
leagues. In a very fhort time we faw another ifland to
windward of us, bearing E. S. E. diftant between three and'
four leagues :• this appeared to be much larger than that
which we firft difcbvered, and we muft have palled very
near it in the night.
I flood for the fmall ifland, which as we drew near it had
a moll beautiful appearance; it was furrounded by a beach
of the fineft white fand, and within, it was covered with
tall trees, which extended their fhade to a great diftance, and
formed the moll delightful groves that can be imagined,
without underwood. We judged this ifland to be about five
miles in circumference, and from each end o f it we faw a
fpit running out into the fea, upon which the furge broke
with great fury; there was alfo a great furf all round it.
Wefoon perceived that it was inhabited; for many o f the
natives appeared upon the beach, with fpears in their hands
that
that were at leaft fixteen feet long,' They prefently made 1765-
feveral large fires, which we fuppofedto be a,fignal; for we ■—
immediately perceived feveral fires upon the larger ifland Fnday 1~
that was to windward of us, by which we knew that alfo
to be inhabited. I fent the boat, with an officer to , look
for an anchoring-place, who, to our great regret and difap-
pointment, returned with an account that he had been all
round the ifland, and that no bottom could be found within
lefs than a cable’s length o f the Ihore, which was furrounded
clofe to the beach with a fteep coral rock. The fcurvy by
this time had made dreadful havock among us, many of
my bell men being now confined to their hammocks ; the
poor wretches who were able to crawl upon the deck, flood
gazing at this little paradife which Nature had forbidden
them to enter, with fenfations which cannot ready be conceived
; they faw cocoa-nuts in-great abundance, the milk
of which is perhaps the moil powerful antifcorbutic in the
world: they had reafon to fuppofe that there were limes,
bananas, and other fruits which are generally found between
the tropics;. and to increafe their mortification they
faw the lhells o f many turtle fcattered about the Ihore;
Thefe refrelhments, indeed, for want o f which they were
languilhing to death, were as effeftually beyond their
reach as. i f there had been half the circumference of the
world between them ; yet their being in fight, was no in-
confiderable increafe o f the diftrefs which they fuffered by
the want of them. Their fituation in itfelf indeed was no
worfe than it would have been i f the obftacle to their wilhes
had been diftance, and not a reef o f rocks; and both being
alike infuperable, a Being wholly under the influence o f
reafon, would, by both, have been equally affedted; but this
is a fituation, among many others, that may be remarked;
by a diligent ohferver, in which reafon cannot preferve man-
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