170 



I 



March. 



A VOYAGE TO 



'777- our intended port. In all this run we faw nothing, except 



March. ' i i 1 i ■ 



t— -V— — ' now and then a Tropic bird, that could induce us to think 

 we had failed near any land. In the latitude of 34° 20', 

 longitude 199°, wc pafTcd the trunk of a large tree, which 

 was covered with barnacles ;. a fign that it had been long 

 at fca. 



Saturday 29» On the 29th, at ten in tlie morning, as we were {landing 

 to the North EafI:, the Difcovery made the fignal of feeing 

 land. We faw it from the maft-head almoft the fame mo- 

 ment, bearing North Eail by Eafl by compafs. We foon 

 difcovered it to be an ifland of no great extent, and flood 

 for it till funfet, when it bore North Nordi Eaft, diflant 

 about two or three leagues. 



The night was fpent in ftanding off and on, and at day- 

 Snnday 30. break the next morning, I bore up for the lee or Weft fide 

 of the ifland, as neither anchorage nor landing appeared 

 to be pratfticable on the South iide, on account of a great 

 furf *, which broke every where with violence againft the 

 fhore, or againft the reef that furroimded it. 



We prefently found that the ifland was inhabited, and 

 faw feveral people, on a point of the land we had pafled, 

 wading to the reef, where, as they found the fhip leaving 

 them quickly, they remained. But others, who foon ap- 

 peared in diflcrent parts, followed her courfe ; and fome- 

 iimes feveral of them colleded into fmall bodies, who made 

 a fliouting noife all together, nearly after the manner oS 

 the inhabitants of New Zealand. 



Between feven and eight o'clock, we were at the Wefl; 

 North Weft part of the ifland, and, being near the fliore, we 



* A very ingenious and fatisfaflory account of the caufe of the furf, is to be met 

 •with in Marfden's Hiftory of Sumatra, p. 29. 32, 



could 



