1777 THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 285 



security. The colours of the different sorts were 

 the most beautiful that can be imagined; the yellow, 

 blue, red, black, &c. far exceeding any thing that art 

 can produce. Their various forms, also, contributed 

 to increase the richness of this submarine grotto, 

 which could not be surveyed without a pleasing 

 transport, mixed, however, with regret, that a work, 

 so stupendously elegant, should be concealed in a 

 place where mankind could seldom have an oppor- 

 tunity of rendering the praises justly due to so 

 enchanting a scene. 



There were no traces of inhabitants having ever 

 been here; if we except a small piece of a canoe 

 that was found upon the beach ; which, probably, 

 may have drifted from some other island. But, what 

 is pretty extraordinary, we saw several small brown 

 rats on this spot ; a circumstance, perhaps, difficult to 

 account for, unless we allow that they were imported 

 in the canoe of which we saw the remains. 



After the boats were laden, I returned on board, 

 leaving Mr. Gore, with a party, to pass the night 

 on shore, in order to be ready to go to work early the 

 next morning. 



That day, being the 15th, was accordingly spent, 

 as the preceding one had been, in collecting, and 

 bringing on board, food for the cattle, consisting 

 chiefly of palm-cabbage, young cocoa-nut trees, and 

 the tender branches of the wharra tree. Having got 

 a sufficient supply of these by sun-set, I ordered every 

 body on board. But having little or no wind, I de- 

 termined to wait, and to employ the next day, by 

 endeavouring to get some cocoa-nuts for our people, 

 from the next island to leeward, where we could 

 observe that those trees were in much greater abund- 

 ance, than upon that where we had already landed, 

 and where only the wants of our cattle had been re- 

 lieved. 



With this view, I kept standing off and on, all 

 night; and, in the morning, between eight and nine 



