176?- to, but they, like their fellows, Hopped at the reef; we did
• A-Pr_'_p not however immediately make fail, as we obferved two
Thurfday . meQgjjgers difpatched to them from the other canoes, which
were of a much larger fi?e; we perceived that thefe mef-
fengers made great expedition, wading; and fwimming along
the reef; at length they met, and the men on board the canoes
making no difpofitions to pafs the reef, after having
received the mellage, we judged that they had refolved to
come no farther: after waiting, therefore, fome little time
longer, we Hood o ff; but when we were got about two or
three miles from the fhore, we perceived fome of the natives
following us in a canoe with a fail; we did not, however,
think it worth while to wait for her, and though fhe had
palled the reef, Ihe foon after gave over the chace.
According to the bell judgment that we could form of the
people when we were neareftthe fhore, they were about our
fize, and well-made. They were of a brown complexion,
and appeared to be naked ; their hair, which was black, was
confined by a fillet that went round the head, and ftuck out
behind like a bulh. The greater part of them carried in
their hands two weapons ; one of them was a llender pole,
from ten to fourteen feet long, on one end of which was a
fmall knob, not unlike the point of a fpear; the other was
about fout feet long, and lhaped like a paddle, and poflibly
might be fo, for fome of their canoes were very fmall: thofe
which we faw them launch feemed not intended to carry
more than the three men that got into them: we faw others
that had on board fix or feven men, and one of them hoifted
a fail which did not feem to reach more than fix feet above the
gunwale of the boat, and which, upon the falling of a flight
fhower, was taken down and converted into an awning or
tilt. The canoe which followed us to fea hoifted a fail not
unlike
unlike an Englifli lug-fail, and almoft as lofty as an Englifh tugboat
of the fame fize would have carried. Twa^T*
The people, who kept abreaft of the Ihip on the beach,
made many fignals; but whether they were intended to
frighten us away, or invite us on fhore, it is not eafy to determine
: we returned them by Waving our hats and fhout-
ing, and they replied by fhouting again. We did not put
their difpofition to the tefl, by attempting to land; becaufe,
as the ifland was inconfiderable, and as we wanted nothing
that it could afford, we thought it imprudent as well as
cruel to rifk a conteft, in which the natives mud have fuf-
fered by our fuperiority, merely to gratify an idle curiofity ;
efpecially as we expedled foon to fall in with the ifland where
we had been direfted to make our aflronomical obfervation,
the inhabitants of which would probably admit us without
oppofition, as they were already acquainted with our ftrength,
and might alfo procure us a ready and peaceable reception
among the neighbouring people, if we fhould defire it.
To thefe illands we gave the name of T he G roups.
On the 7th, about half an hour after fix in the morning, Friday 7.
| ‘ . . n i Bird Ifland.
being juft at day-break, we difcovered another ifland to the
northward, which we judged to be about four miles in cir-
j cumference. The land lay very low, and there was a piece
of water in the middle of i t ; there feemed to be fome wood
upon it, and it looked green and pleafant; but we faw neither
cocoa trees nor inhabitants: it abounded however with
birds, and we therefore gave it the name of B ir d - I s l a n d .
It lies in latitude 17° 48' S. and longitude T430 35' W. at
the diftance of ten leagues, in the direction W. 4N. from the
weft end of the Groups. The variation here was 6° 32' E,
On the 8th, about two o’clock in the afternoon, we faw Saturdays,
land to the northward, and about funfet came abreaft of it,
L 2 at