256 cook's voyage to april, 



grapplings, just without the surf, and a prodigious 

 number of the natives on the shore abreast of them. 

 By this we concluded that Mr. Gore and others of 

 our people had landed, and our impatience to know 

 the event may be easily conceived. In order to ob- 

 serve their motions, and to be ready to give them 

 such assistance as they might want, and our respec- 

 tive situations would admit of, I kept as near the 

 shore as was prudent. I was sensible, however, that 

 the reef was as effectual a barrier between us and our 

 friends who had landed, and put them as much be- 

 yond the reach of our protection, as if half the cir- 

 cumference of the globe had intervened. But the 

 islanders, it was probable, did not know this so well 

 as we did. Some of them now and then came off to 

 the ships in their canoes with a few cocoa-nuts, which 

 thev exchanged for whatever was offered to them, 

 without seeming to give the preference to any parti- 

 cular article. 



These occasional visits served to lessen my solici- 

 tude about our people who had landed. Though we 

 could get no information from our visitors ; yet their 

 venturing on board seemed to imply, at least, that 

 their countrymen on shore had not made an improper 

 use of the confidence put in them. At length, a 

 little before sun-set, we had the satisfaction of seeing 

 the boats put off*. When they got on board, I found 

 that Mr. Gore himself, Omai, Mr. Anderson, and 

 Mr. Burney, were the only persons who had landed. 

 The transactions of the day were now fully reported 

 to me by Mr. Gore ; but Mr. Anderson's account 

 of them being very particular, and including some 

 remarks on the island and its inhabitants, I shall give 

 it a place here nearly in his own words. 



" We rowed toward a small sandy beach, upon 

 which, and upon the adjacent rocks, a great number 

 of the natives had assembled, and came to an anchor 

 within a hundred yards of the reef, which extends 

 about as far, or a little farther from the shore. Se- 



