1765- muft have coft.thofe who made them infinite labour; They
■ ^-”1' . confifted o f planks exceedingly well wrought, and in many
Monday 10. pjaceg adorned with carving; thefe planks were fewed together,
and over every feam there was a ftrip &£ tortoife-
ihell, very artificially faftened, to keep out the weather: their
bottoms were as fharp as a wedge, and they were very narrow
; and therefore two o f them were joined laterally together
by a couple of ftrong fpars, fo that there was a fpace
o f about fix or eight feet between them: a mail was hoifted
in each o f them, and the fail was fpread between the malls f
the fail, which I preferred,, and which is now in my poflef-
fion, is made o f matting, and is as neat a piece o f work as
ever I faw: their paddles were very curious, and their cordage
was as good and as well laid as any in England, though
it appeared to be made o f the outer covering o f the cocoa-
nut. When thele veflels fail, feveral men fit upon the fpars
which hold the canoes together.
As the fixrf which broke very high upon the fhore rendered
it impoffible to procure refrefhments for the lick in
this part o f the ifland', I hauled the wind, and worked back
to the inlet, being determined to try once more what could
be done there. I
I recovered that ftation in the afternoon, and immediately
fent the boats to found the inlet again, but they confirmed
the account which had been made before, that it afforded
no anchorage for a fhip. While the boats were abfent, I ob-
ferved a great number o f the natives upon the point near
thefpot where w e had left them in the morning, and they
feemed to be very bufy in loading a great number o f large
canoes which lay clbfe to the beach. AS I thought they might
be troublefome, and was unwilling that' they' fhould fuffer
by
by another unequal contell with our people, I fired a fliot '765-
over their heads which produced the effedb I intended, for >— ^ _<
they all difappeared in a moment. - ' Mon<iay 10-
Juft before the evening clofed in, our boats landed, and Tuefday u ,
got a few cocoa-nuts which they brought off, but faw none
o f the inhabitants. In the night, during which we had rain
and hard fqualls, I flood off and on with the fhips, and at
feven o’clock in the morning brought to off the inlet, I im*-
mediately fent the boats on fhore in fearch of refrelhments,
and made all the men who were not fo ill of the fcurvy as
to be laid up, go in them ; I alfo went on fhore myfelf, and
continued there the whole day. We faw many houfes or
wigwams, o f the natives, but they were totally deferted,
except by the dogs, who kept an inceffant howling from the
time we came on fhore till we returned to the fhip: they
were low mean hovels, thatched with cocoa-nut branches;
but they were molt delightfully fituated in a fine grove of
ftately trees, many o f which were the cocoa-nut, and many
fuch as we were utterly unacquainted with. The cocoa-
nut trees feem to furnifh them with almoft all the necefla-
ries o f life; particularly food, fails, cordage,, timber, and
veffels to hold water; fo that probably thefe people always
fix their habitations where the trees abound. We obferved
the fhore to be covered with coral, and the fhells o f very
large pearl oyfters; fo that I make no doubt but that as profitable
a pearl fiihery might be eftablifhed here as any in the
world. We faw but little of the people, except at a diftance;
we could however perceive that the women had a piece of
cloth o f feme kind, probably fabricated o f the fame fluff as
their fail, hanging from the waift as low as the knee; the
men were naked.
6 Our