3S4 



A VOYAGE TO 



'777- iflands ; and, as Ton^ataboo is a fine level country, the- 



July. 



« ' horfes cannot but be ufcful. 



Thurfdayio. On the loth, at eight o'clock in the morning, we weighed 

 anchor, and, with a fleady gale at South Eaft, turned 

 through the channel, between the fmall ifles called Makka- 

 haa and Monooatai ; it being nauch wider than the channel 

 between the laft mentioned ifland and Pangimodoo. The 

 flood fet ftrong in our favour, till we were the length of the 

 channel leading up to the lagoon, where the flood from the 

 Eaftward meets that from the Weft. This, together with 

 the indraught of the lagoon^ and of the fhoals before it, 

 caufeth ftrong riplings and whirlpools. To add to thefe 

 dangers, the depth of water in the channel exceeds the 

 length of a cable ; fo that there is no anchorage, except 

 clofe to the rocks, where we meet with forty and forty-five 

 fathoms, over a bottom of dark fand. But then, here, a 

 fliip would be expofed to the whirlpools. This fruftrated 

 the defign which I had formed, of coming to an anchor, as 

 foon as we were through the narrows, and of making an 

 excurfion to fee the funeral. I chofe rather to lofe that ce- 

 remony, than to leave the fliips in a fituation, in which I 

 did not think them fafe. We continued to ply to windward, 

 between the two tides, without either gaining or lofing an 

 inch, till near high water, when, by a favourable flant, we 

 got into the Eaftern tide's influence. We expeded, there, to 

 find the ebb to run ftrong to the Eafl:ward in our favour ; 

 but it proved fo inconfiderable, that, at any other time, it 

 would not have been noticed. This informed us, that mofl: 

 of the water, which flows into the lagoofi, comes from the 

 North Weft, and returns the fame way. About five in the 

 afternoon, finding that we could not get to fea before it was 

 4 dark, 



