THEPACIFICOCEAN. i3c 



diftanr. The wind was at Eall South Eaft ; fo that we were j^^^Hi^^ ' 

 under a neceffity of making a few boards, to get up ro the > — -v — » 

 lee, or Well fide; where we found from forty to twenty and 

 fourteen fathoms water, over a bottom of fine fand ; the 

 leaft depth about half a mile from the breakers, and the 

 grcateft about one mile. The meeting with foundings de- 

 termined me to anchor, with a view to try to get fome 

 turtle; for the ifland feemed be a likely place to meet witli 

 them, and to be without inhabitants. Accordingly, we 

 dropped anchor in thirty fathoms ; and then a boat was 

 difpatched to examine whether it was practicable to land ; 

 of which I had fome doubt, as the fea broke in a dreadful 

 furf all along the fliorc. When the boat returned, the of- 

 ficer, whom I had intruded with this eximination, reported" 

 to me, that he could fee no place where a boat could land ; 

 but that there was great abundance of fifli in the flioal water, 

 without the breakers. 



At day-break, the next morning, I fent tvyo boats, one from TUrfJay 25. 

 each fliip, to fearch more accurately for a landing-place; 

 and, at the fame time, two others, to fiOi at a grappling 

 near the fliore. Thcfe lail returned about eight o'clock, 

 with upward of two hundred weight of filli. Encouraged 

 by this fuccefs, they were difpatched again after breakfart ; 

 and I then went in another boat, to take a view of the coart, 

 and attempt landing ; but this I found to be wholly im- 

 practicable. Toward noon, the two boats, fent on the fame 

 fearch, returned. The martcr, who was in that belonging 

 to the Refolution, reported to me, that, about a league and 

 a half to the North, was a break in the land, and a channel 

 into the tagoon, confcquently, that there was a iit place for 

 landing ; and that he had found the fame foundings off 

 this entrance, as wc had where we now lay. In confc-- 



que nee 



