1777* THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 243 



side, on account of a great surf' # , which broke every 

 where with violence against the shore, or against the 

 reef that surrounded it. 



We presently found that the island was inhabited, 

 and saw several people, on a point of the land we 

 had passed, wading to the reef, where, as 

 they found the ship leaving them quickly, they 

 remained. But others, who soon appeared in 

 different parts, followed her course, and sometimes 

 several of them collected into small bodies, who 

 made a shouting noise altogether, nearly after the 

 manner of the inhabitants of New Zealand. 



Between seven and eight o'clock, we were at the 

 west north-west part of the island, and being near 

 the shore, we could perceive with our glasses, that 

 several of the natives, who appeared upon a sandy 

 beach, were all armed with long spears and clubs, 

 which they brandished in the air with signs of 

 threatening, or, as some on board interpreted their 

 attitudes, with invitations to land. Most of them 

 appeared naked, except having a sort of girdle, 

 which being brought up between the thighs, covered 

 that part of the body. But some of them had pieces 

 of cloth of different colours, white, striped, or 

 chequered, which they wore as a garment thrown 

 about their shoulders. And almost all of them had 

 a white wrapper about their heads, not much unlike 

 a turban ; or, in some instances, like a high conical 

 cap. We could also perceive that they were of a 

 tawny colour, and in general of a middling stature, 

 but robust, and inclining to corpulence. 



At this time, a small canoe was launched in a 

 great hurry from the further end of the beach, and 

 a man getting into it, put off, as with a view to 

 reach the ship. On perceiving this, I brought to, 

 that we might receive the visit; but the man's 



* A very ingenious and satisfactory account of the cause of the 

 surf, is to be met with in Marsden's History of Sumatra, p. 29. 32. 



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