10 FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 



but he would not desist from his purpose, till 

 I gave him a blow with the fist on his head ; upon 

 which he left me, and swam on shore. Another 

 old man wanted to take possession of the rudder 

 of the Baydare, at which the pilot was so enraged 

 that he was going to shoot him, had he not been 

 prevented by the gentlemen on board of her ; and 

 to avoid disagreeable consequences, I determined 

 to return to the ship. The island is surrounded 

 with red coral reefs : at the place in which we 

 were, the water was not more than a foot in depth. 

 At the reef the depth is five fathoms ; and about 

 fifteen fathoms from the shore, we could not reach 

 the bottom ; the islanders had assembled on this 

 reef, on which account we could not have landed 

 without danger. There were about eighteen boats 

 which surrounded us, none held more than six 

 men j several only one or two j and they were 

 all without masts. The number of islanders in 

 the boats, and on the shore, amounted to about two 

 hundred j we saw but a few women among them, 

 and no children. The island is very woody, and we 

 saw a great many pandanus, but only a very few and 

 low cocoa trees. The islanders were all tatooed, 

 like those that came to the ship, and likewise had 

 rolled leaves in their ears. 



That we had begun the new year with a dis- 

 covery, seemed to us a good omen, and gave us all 

 much pleasure. I now changed my plan of sailing 

 to the Kutusof's group, and, as it might be con- 



