OF LA PEROUSE. sSl 



It did not appear to me that thefe people 

 chewed betel; at leaft I never perceived any 

 iign of this practice. 



Thefe canoes had now pafTed feveral hours 

 round our fliips, when one of the chiefs made a 

 lignal for departure, and immediately they pad- 

 dled very fwifrly towards the coafl: ; however, a 

 canoe ftill remained a few minutes, to receive 

 fbme bits of red cloth, which we were offering 

 to the people in it, at the moment when the 

 others quitted us; but prefently thefe iOanders, 

 feeing their countrymen already far off, pad- 

 dled with all their might, in order to try to 

 overtake them : we then faw with furprife, 

 their canoe cut the waves fo rapidly, that 

 it went at the rate of at leaft a myriameter 

 and a half an hour. 



Very early in the morning of the ift of June, 

 we began to range along the eaft coafl: of Guadal 

 Canal, which falls with a pretty gentle declivity, 

 and we difcovered in the interior of the iiland a 

 large chain of mountains which followed the 

 fame diredion. Prefently we dift'nguiilied 

 Shortland's Mount Lammas. The (hore was 

 lined with cocoa-palms, under the fhade of 

 which we perceived a great number of huts. 

 Shoals for a great diftance barred the accefs to 

 this coaft, along which we wc.e in a lingular 

 manner thwarted by currents that fet us to 

 4 the 



