190 A VOYAGE OF £flSC0V£&Y
boo K miles.; We faw fame canoes palling clofe in flaore;
v—■%'—1 and fee fohoonef was directed to keep between us and
the land.
We peered in fee direakin of fee ifland, at;a league
difiance. At 4 h. we^were a-breaft of a final! ifland
off .tie Ms TL part. It was low and flat, covered with
. brulh-wood and boarfe grafs, An extenfivc reefi
partly dry, extended from each extreme. This fmall
i-fle is very little diftance from the larger one, which
tended to the S. E. from its north extreme; and we
fleered Eaft for another ifland, which we had palled
lafryear on its eaftern fide. We foon after difoovered
the range of low iflands joining each other by coral
reefs, that fcerned to exclude any paffage between the
two large iflands,; and yet we had no foundings/ At
7h. the iflet bore from 53* W. to 65° W., four or five
miles, on with the north extreme of the fouthern large
ifland; extreme of ditto, $. 18° E , ; Peaked Ifland
among the reefs, S. 25° E . ; the other ifland about
Village point extreme, S. 55® E., and extending to
N. 74° E., five or fix leagues. At 11 h. we hauled
our wind, and remained plying till daylight, when
the extremes extended from N. 80° E- to S. 10° W.
three or four leagues off Ihore; and the ill and we had
paffed in the afternoon bore from S, 30° W. to
S. 60°
S, K W. In the forenoon r$e had Kght airs and C'BAP.
fid try, weatheft which; pT^yented onr approaching
the land; 1 therefore difpatched aboat to acquire May.
fotoe knowledge 'Of the; inhabitants, whom we plainly
difeerned with our gtafles. I was prevented laft year -
from gaining any information refpe&idg them by
bad weather; and hitherto we could find no M e
anchorage from the depth of .. water and. eorally
bottom.
At noon we were within four mfiOs of fee fotwe,
abreaft of a bay overrun with reefs/ and we had
125 fathoms water, hard* ground: the extremes
bearing from M. 56° E. to & 48° W. The ifland
in this part was cohtra&ed to a narrow ifthmus,
and South of it was a Confpicuous fogar-loaf hill.
Towards the evening the boat returned from the I<Sth-
ihore, having been proteaed by the- fchooner during
fee time they had landed. With fome difficulty
they found a paffage through the coral reef which "
extends along the coaft nearly half a mile off: within
it fee boat was well Iheltered; and without the
reef their foundings were irregular from fifty to five
fathoms.
They