THIRD VOYAGE 243 



and beautiful ; but appeared with all the timidity natural 

 to the sex, though she gazed on us with a kind of anxious 

 concern, that seemed to struggle with her fear, and to 

 express her astonishment at so unusual a sight. 



" * About a third part of the men were armed with 

 clubs and spears. The clubs were generally about six 

 feet long, made of hard black wood, lance-shaped at the 

 end, but much broader, with the edge nicely scolloped, 

 and the whole neatly polished. 



" * What the soil of the island may be, farther inland, 

 we could not tell. But, toward the sea, it is nothing more 

 than a bank of coral, ten or twelve feet high, steep and 

 rugged ; except where there are small sandy beaches, at 

 some clefts where the ascent is gradual. The reef or 

 rock, that lines the shore entirely, runs to different 

 breadths into the sea, where it ends all at once, and 

 becomes like a high, steep wall.' 



" Though the landing of our gentlemen proved the 

 means of enriching my journal with the foregoing par- 

 ticulars, the principal object I had in view was, in a 

 great measure, unattained ; for the day was spent without 

 getting any one thing from the island worth mentioning. 

 The natives, however, were gratified with a sight they 

 never before had ; and, probably, will never have again. 

 And mere curiosity seems to have been the chief motive 

 for keeping the gentlemen under such restraint, and for 

 using every art to prolong their continuance amongst 

 them. 



" Omai was Mr. Gore's interpreter ; but that was not 

 the only service he performed this day. He was asked, 

 by the natives, a great many questions concerning us ; 

 and according to the account he gave me, his answers 

 were not a little upon the marvellous. As, for instance, 

 he told them that our country had ships as large as their 

 island, on board which were 'instruments of war, of such 

 dimensions, that several people might sit within them ; 

 and that one of them was sufficient to crush the whole 

 island at one shot. This led them to inquire of him what 

 sort of guns we actually had in our two ships. He said, 

 that though they were but small, in comparison with 

 those he had just described, yet, with such as they were, 

 we could, with the greatest ease, and at the distance the 

 ships were from the shore, destroy the island, and kill 

 every soul in it. They persevered in their inquiries to 

 know by what means this could be done ; and Omai ex- 

 plained the matter as well as he could. He happened 

 luckily to have a few cartridges in his pocket. These 

 he produced ; the balls, and the gunpowder which was 





