THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 63 



my way down again. In the evening, we hauled the feine jy^[ll^^^^ 



at the head of the harbour, but caught only half a dozen ' ' 



fmall fifh. We had no better fuccefs next day, when we 

 tried with hook and line. So that our only refource here, 

 for frefh provifions, were birds, of which there was an in- 

 exhauftible iiore. 



The morning of the 26th proved foggy, with rain. How- ThurfdayzS. 

 ever, we went to work to fill water, and to cut grafs for our 

 cattle, which we found in fmall fpots near the head of the 

 harbour. The rain which fell, fwelled all the rivulets to 

 fuch a degree, that the fides of the hills, bounding the har- 

 bour, feenied to be covered with a fheet of water. For the 

 rain, as it fell, run into the fifTures and crags of the rocks 

 that compoied the interior parts of the hills, and was preci- 

 pitated down their fides in prodigious torrents. 



The people having wrought hard the two preceding days, 

 and nearly completed our water, which v^e filled from a 

 brook at the left corner of the beach, I allowed them the 

 27th as a day of reft, to celebrate Chriflmas. Upon this in- i-rldaya;, 

 dulgence, many of them went on fhore, and made excur- 

 fions, in different directions, into the country, which they 

 found barren and defolate in the higheft degree. In the ^ 

 evening, one of them brought to me a quart bottle which 

 he had found, faftened with fome wire to a proje(5ting rock 

 on the North fide of the harbour. This bottle contained a 

 piece of parchment, on which was written the following 

 infcripticn : 



Lndovko 



