PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 97 



" Please may I sit down or get up, or go out of the 

 cabin?" or " Please to open or shut the door." Their 

 applications were, however, made with such good 

 nature and simplicity that it was impossible not to 

 feel the greatest pleasure in paying attention to 

 them. They very soon learnt the christian name of 

 every officer in the ship, which they always used in 

 conversation instead of the surname, and wherever a 

 similarity to their own occurred, they attached them- 

 selves to that person as a matter of course. 



It was many hours after they came on board be- 

 fore the ship could get near the island, during which 

 time they so ingratiated themselves with us that we 

 felt the greatest desire to visit their houses ; and 

 rather than pass another night at sea we put off in 

 the boats, though at a considerable distance from the 

 land, and accompanied them to the shore. We fol- 

 lowed our guides past a rugged point surmounted 

 by tall spiral rocks, known to the islanders as St. 

 Paul's rocks, into a spacious iron-bound bay, where 

 the Bounty found her last anchorage. In this bay, 

 which is bounded by lofty cliffs almost inaccessible, 

 it was proposed to land. Thickly branched ever- 

 greens skirt the base of these hills, and in summer 

 afford a welcome retreat from the rays of an almost 

 vertical sun. In the distance are seen several high 

 pointed rocks which the pious highlanders have 

 named after the most zealous of the Apostles, and 

 outside of them is a square basaltic islet. Formida- 

 ble breakers fringe the coast, and seem to present an 

 insurmountable barrier to all access. 



We here brought our boats to an anchor, in con- 

 sequence of the passage between the sunken rocks be- 

 ing much too intricate, and we trusted ourselves to 



VOL. I. H 



