84 cook's second voyage august, 



in that language. Some, indeed, had black short 

 frizzled hair, like the natives of Mallicollo ; but 

 others had it long, tied up on the crown of the head, 

 and ornamented with feathers, like the New Zea- 

 land ers. Their other ornaments were bracelets and 

 necklaces ; one man had something like a white 

 shell on his forehead ; and some were painted with a 

 blackish pigment. I did not see that they had any 

 other weapon but darts and gigs, intended only for 

 striking of fish. Their canoes were much like those 

 of Tanna, and navigated in the same manner, or 

 nearly so. They readily gave us the names of such 

 parts as we pointed to : but we could not obtain from 

 them the name of the island. At length, seeing our 

 boats coming, they paddled in for the shore, notwith- 

 standing all we could say or do to detain them. 



When the boats returned, Mr. Cooper informed 

 me, that they had landed on the beach which is at 

 the head of the bay, near a fine river, or stream of 

 fresh water, so large and deep, that they judged 

 boats might enter it at high water. They found three 

 fathoms depth close to the beach, and fifty-five and 

 fifty, two cables' length off. Farther out they did 

 not sound ; and where we were with the ship we had 

 no soundings with an hundred and seventy fathoms 

 line. Before the boats got on board, the wind had 

 shifted to S. S. E. As we were in want of nothing, 

 and had no time to spare, I took the advantage of 

 this shift of wind, and steered down the bay. During 

 the fore-part of the night, the country was illumi- 

 nated with fires, from the sea-shore to the summits 

 of the mountains ;, but this was only on the west side 

 of the shore. I cannot pretend to say what was the 

 occasion of these fires, but have no idea of their 

 being on our account. Probably they were burning 

 or clearing the ground for new plantations. At day- 

 break, on the 27th, we found ourselves two-thirds 

 down the bay ; and, as we had but little wind, it 

 was noon before we were the length of the N. W. 



