358 cook's first voyage dec* 



the rock on which we had struck being to windward, 

 the ship went off without having received the least 

 damage, and the water very soon deepened to twenty 

 fathom. 



This rock lies half a mile W.N. W. of the northern- 

 most or outermost island on the south-east side of 

 the bay. We had light airs from the land, with 

 calms, till nine o'clock the next morning, when we 

 got out of the bay, and a breeze springing up at N. 

 N. W. we stood out to sea. 



This bay, as I have before observed, lies on the 

 west side of Cape Bret, and I named it the Bay oj* 

 Islands, from the great number of islands which line 

 its shores, and from several harbours equally safe 

 and commodious, where there is room and depth for 

 any number of shipping. That in which we lay is 

 on the south-west side of the south westernmost island, 

 called Maturaro, on the south-east side of the bay. 

 I have made no accurate survey of this bay, being 

 discouraged by the time it would cost me; I thought 

 also that it was sufficient to be able to affirm that it 

 afforded us good anchorage, and refreshment of every 

 kind. It was not the season for roots, but we had 

 plenty of fish, most of which, however, we purchased 

 of the natives, for we could catch very little ourselves 

 either with net or line. When we showed the natives 

 our seine, which is such as the King's ships are 

 generally furnished with, they laughed at it, and in 

 triumph produced their own, which, was indeed of 

 an enormous size, and made of a kind of grass, which 

 is very strong: it was five fathom deep, and by the 

 room it took up, it could not be less than three or 

 four hundred fathom long. Fishing seems indeed to 

 be the chief business of life in this part of the country; 

 we saw about all their towns a great number of nets, 

 laid in heaps like hay-cocks, and covered with a 

 thatch to keep them from the weather, and we 

 scarcely entered a house where some of the people 

 were not employed in making them. The fish we 



