' 774-
March.
T-efday 15.
This account of the excurfio'n I had from Mr. Pickerfgill
and Mr. Wale's, men on whofe veracity I could depend; and,
therefore, I determined to leave the ifland the next morning,
-fince nothing was to be obtained that could make it worth
my while to flay longer ; for the water which we had fent
on board, was not much better than if it had been taken
up out of the fea.
OTedn-risi We Had a calm till ten o’clock in the morning of the 16th,
when a breeze fprung up at Weft, accompanied with heavy
fhowers of rain, which lafted about an hour. The weather
then clearing up, we got under fail, flood to fea, and kept
plying to and fro, while an officer was fent on fhore with
two boats, to purchafe iuch refrefhments as the natives
might have brought down; for I judged this would be the
cafe, as they knew nothing of our failing. The event proved
that I was not miftaken; for the boats made two trips before
night; when we hoi-fled them in, and made fail to the
N. W., with a light breeze at N. N. E.
CH A P .
AND R O U N D THE WORLD. 287
C H A P . VIII.
A Defcription o f the I f and, its Produce, Situation, and
Inhabitants; their Manners and Cufoms, ConjeEhires
concerning their Government, Religion, and other Sttb-
je B s ; with a more particular Account o f the gigantic-
Statues.
I SHALL now give fome farther account of this ifland* »??+•
which is undoubtedly the fame that admiral Roggewein ■ '
touched at in April 1722; although the defcription given of
it by the authors of that voyage does by no means agree
with it now. It may alfo be the fame that was feen by Cap- ’
tain Davis in 1686; for, when feen from the Eaft, it anfwers
very well to Wafer’s defcription, as I have before obferved.
In fhort, if this is not the land, his difeovery cannot lie far
from the coaft of America, as this latitude has been well
explored from the meridian of 80° to no°. Captain Carteret
carried it much farther; but his track feems to have
been a little too far South, Had I found frefh water, I intended
fpending fome days in looking for the low fandy ifle
Davis fell in with, which would have determined the point.
But as I did not find water, and had a long run to make before
I was affined of getting any; and being in want of refrefhments,
I declined the fearch; as a fmall delay might
have been attended with bad confequcnces to the crew, many
of them beginning to be more or lefs affected with the-
fcurvy,
N@t