great numbers of birds, fuch as men of war, tropic, and
egg-birds, nodies, fheer-waters, See. and once we paiTed feve-
ral pieces of fponge, and a fmall dried leaf not unlike a bay
one. Soon after, we faw a fea fnake, in every refpedt like
thofe we had before feen at the Tropical Iflands. We alfo
faw plenty of fifh, but were fuch bad fifhers that we caught
only four albacores, which were very acceptable, to me efjpe-
cially, who was juft recovering from my late illnefs.
C H A P . VIE
(Sequel o f the Pafage from New Zealand to E a jler Ifland>
and EranfaBions therey with an Account o f an Expedition
to dfcover the Inland Part o f the Country, and-
a Dejcription o f fame o f the fu rp rifn g gigantic Statues
found in the I f and.
T eight o’clock in the morning on the nth, land was-
dT \- feen, from the maft-head, bearing Weft; and at noon
from the deck,' extending from W. 4 N1 to W. by S., about
twelve leagues diftant. I made no doubt that this was;
Davis’s Land, or Eafter Ifiand ; as its appearance- from this
fituation, correfponded very well with Wafer’s account; and
we expected to have feen the low fandy ifle that Davis fell
in with, which would have been a confirmation;: but in this-
we were difappointed. At feven o’clock in the evening, the
ifland bore from N. 62° Weft to North 87° Weft, about five:
leagues diftant; in which fituation we founded without finding
ground with a line of an hundred and forty fathoms.
Here we fpent the night, having alternately light airs and
calms»,