OF LA PEROUSE. Uj 



back of the mountains which were fituated to 

 the fouth of our anchorage. On the 26th we 

 aflembled on the beach early in the morning, 

 to the number of twenty-eight. We had agreed 

 all to go armed, in order to be able recipro- 

 cally to aflifl: each other, in cafe the favages 

 lliould venture to attack us. 



We walked for a long time in paths well 

 beaten, and were accompanied by a few of the 

 inhabitants. Several amono; us, following; their 

 example, chewed fome young fhoots of the 

 hihijcus tiliaccuSy and almoft immediately fpit 

 them out; but we were not a little furprifed to fee 

 thefe favages greedily pick them up, and chew 

 them again without repugnance. 



When we had got to about the middle of 

 the mountain, we found fome very conliderable 

 blocks of mica; in thefe we perceived feveral 

 garnets which had lofi: their tranfparency, and 

 the greater part of which were bigger than the 

 thumb. Farther on, in rocks of fand-Hone, we 

 found a few which were very fmall, but which 

 had prefervedall their luftre. 



The fmoke that rofe at intervals from the 

 bottom of a thicket, which we faw at a little 

 diftance towards the fouth fouth-eafl, induced 

 us to direct our fleps that way. I there met 

 with two men and a child employed in roafting 

 on the coals roots of a fpecies of bean known to 



botanifls 



