COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE JUNE, 



been speaking of. In this island, not only the loose 

 rocks which cover the surface, but the cliffs which 

 bound the shores, are of corai stone, which the con- 

 tinual beating of the sea has formed into a variety of 

 curious caverns, some of them very large : the roof or 

 rock over them being supported by pillars, which the 

 foaming waves have formed into a multitude of shapes, 

 and made more curious than the caverns themselves. 

 In one, we saw light was admitted through a hole at 

 the top ; in another place, we observed that the whole 

 roof of one of these caverns had sunk in, and formed 

 a kind of valley above, which lay considerably below 

 the circumjacent rocks. 



I can say but little of the inhabitants, who I be- 

 lieve, are not numerous. They seemed to be stout, 

 well-made men, were naked, except round the waists, 

 and some of them had their faces, breast, and thighs 

 painted black. The canoes were precisely like those 

 of Amsterdam ; with the addition of a little rising 

 like a gunwale on each side of the open part ; and 

 had some carving about them, which shewed that 

 these people are full as ingenious. Both these island- 

 ers and their canoes, agree very well with the de- 

 scriptions M. de Bougainville has given of those he 

 saw off the Isle of Navigators, which lies nearly un- 

 der the same meridian. 



After leaving Savage Island, we continued to steer 

 W. S. W. with a fine easterly trade-wind, till the 24th 

 in the evening, when, judging ourselves not far from 

 Rotterdam, we brought to, and spent the night ply- 

 ing under the top-sails. At day-break, next morn- 

 ing, we bore away West ; and, soon after, saw a 

 string of islands extending from S. S. W; by the West 

 to N. N. W. The wind being at N. E. we hauled to 

 N. W. with a view of discovering more distinctly the 

 isles in that quarter ; but, presently after, we disco- 

 vered a reef of rocks a-head, extending on each bow 

 farther than we could see. As we could not weather 

 them, it became necessary to tack and bear up to 



