February. 1'ltuat^on as “ lhe morning. Great numbers of the natives were
'— «— ' c°hected together on the beach ; many to take their leave of us,
and others were very importunate for a Matano, amongft whom
was the man I engaged to attend me in the morning: he got two
nails fi om me, with which he was perfectly fatisfied, a poor reward,
thou wilt fay, for a long, wearifome day’s attendance! However, it
ferved to remind me of thofe good old Englifh times, when the
diligent labourer had the alternative of a penny, or a peck of wheat
for his day’s hire.
Abbenoues people attended with their canoes, to paddle us
through the furf to our boat, as in the morning, and we got fafe
on board foon after fun-fet. ,
The pleafure I experienced during this day’s excurfion, is infinitely
fuperior to any thing of the kind I ever met with s and if
this imperfeft account gives thee the leaft fatisfa&ion, it will Hill
heighten that of thy allured friend,
A, toui, j? " W. B.
n th Feb. 5
L E T T E R
L E T T E R XXVII.
1787.
February.
HA V IN G ' given thee an account of my excurfion at Atoui,
I fhall now return to our tranfactions on board.
Towards the 8th of February, the weather grew clofe and fultry,
attended with a good deal of lightning. In the night of the 9th, a
frelh breeze fprung up from the Southward 5 and at five o’clock
the next morning, we parted our fmall bower cable twenty-one
fathom from the anchor.
We ftill had a ftrong Southerly breeze, and an increafing fwell,
H that any efforts to recover our anchor would have been ineffectual
j all that we could do at prefent was to leave two or three
buoys as near as we could guefs where the anchor lay, the buoy
which was ftreamed when we came to anchor being funk.
During the afternoon and evening o f the 10th, our fituation was
very difagreeable: the weather was very fqually, with thunder,
lightning, and heavy rain, the wind blowing ftrong at South Weft
and South South Weft.; fo that if necelfity had forced us to flip
our cable, there was no probability of clearing the land.
In the afternoon of the n,th, the wind veered to the Weftward,
and grew more moderate, which lowered the fwell greatly. Though
the fea ran very high, our friend Long-lhanks came off to us this
afternoon, bringing fome taro along with him ; he did not fail to
x magnify