THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 193 



alon": the South Eall fide, at the diftance of half a league '"S- 



' f r January. 



from the fliore. As foon as we made fail, the canoes left v— v-~-j 

 us ; but others came off, as we proceeded along the coaft, 

 bringing with them roafting-pigs, and fome very fine pota- 

 toes, which they exchanged, as the others had done, for 

 whatever was offered to them. Several fmall pigs were 

 purchafcd for a fixpenny nail; fo that we again found our- 

 felves in a land of plenty ; and jufl: at the time when the 

 turtle, which we had fo fortunately procured at Chriftmas 

 Ifland, were nearly expended. We pafled feveral villages ; 

 fome feated near the fca, and others farther up the country. 

 The inhabitants of all of them crowded to the fliore, and 

 collecflcd themfelvcs on the elevated places to view the fliips. 

 The land upon this fide of the ifland rifes, in a gentle flope, 

 from" the fea to the foot of the mountains, which occupy 

 the centre of the country, except at one place near the Eaft 

 end, where they rife dire^lly from the fca, and fecmed to be 

 formed of nothing but ftone, or rocks lying in horizontal 

 Jlrata. We faw no wood, but what was up in the interior 

 part of the ifland, except a few trees about the villages ; 

 near which, alfo, we could obferve feveral plantations of 

 plantains and fugar-canes, and fpots that fecmed cultivated 

 for roots. 



We continued to found, without flriking ground with a 

 line of fifty fathoms, till we came abreaft of a low point, 

 which is about the middle of this fide of the ifland, or ra- 

 ther nearer the North Vv'efl end. Here we met with twelve 

 and fourteen fathoms, over a rocky bottom. Being pafl this 

 point, from which the coaft trended more Northerly, we had 

 twenty, then fixteen, twelve, and, at laft, five fathoms over 

 a fandy bottom. The la(l foundings were about a mile from 

 the fhore. Night aow put a flop to any farther refcarches ; 



Vol. II. C c and 



