304 cook's voyage to may, 



the imagination with an idea of some fairy land 

 realized. It should seem, that some of them at 

 least may have been formed, as we supposed Pal- 

 merston's Island to have been, for there is one, 

 which as yet, is entirely sand, and another on which 

 there is only one bush or tree. 



At four o'clock in the afternoon being the length 

 of Kotoo, the westernmost of the above cluster of 

 small islands, we steered to the north, leaving 

 Toofoa and Kao on our larboard, keeping along the 

 west side of a reef of rocks, which lie to the west- 

 ward of Kotoo, till we came to their northern 

 extremity, round which we hauled in for the island. 

 It was our intention to have anchored for the night, 

 but it came upon us before we could find a place in 

 less than fifty-five fathoms' water, and rather than 

 come to in this depth, I chose to spend the night 

 under sail. ' 



We had in the afternoon been within two leagues 

 of Toofoa, the smoke of which we saw several times 

 in the day. The friendly islanders have some su- 

 perstitious notions about the volcano upon it, which 

 they call Kollqfeea, and say it is an Otooa> or divinity. 

 According to their account, it sometimes throws up 

 very large stones; and they compare the crater to 

 the size of a small islot, w 7 hich has never ceased 

 smoking in their memory, nor have they any tra- 

 dition that it ever did. We sometimes saw the 

 smoke rising from the centre of the island, while we 

 were at Annamooka, though at the distance of at 

 least ten leagues. Toofoa, we were told, is but 

 thinly inhabited, but the water upon it is good. 



At day -break the next morning, being then not 

 far from Kao, which is a vast rock of a conic figure, 

 we steered to the east for the passage between the 

 islands Footooha and Hafaiva, with a gentle breeze 

 at south-east. About ten o'clock, Feenou came on 

 board, and remained with us all day. He brought 

 with him two hogs and a quantity of fruit; and, in 



