*7 VOYAGE IN SfcARfJH 



intentions of thefe. This navigator informs us*, 

 that the favages twice attacked him with theif 

 arrows, notwithstanding all the marks of friend- 

 ship he had lavifhed on them, when, in Septem- 

 ber 1767, he explored the fouthern part of this 

 Archipelago *. 



We obferved that this ifland was cultivated io 

 its very fummit. Different plots of ground, en- 

 clofed by palifades, made us think that the right 

 of landed property is not unknown to its inha- 

 bitants. The whole of the ifland prefents the 

 form of a fmall and tolerably round moun- 

 tain, the foot of which is adorned with fine 

 plantations of cocoa-palms, while the elevated 

 ippts feemed appropriated to the culture of va- 

 rious roots, which alfo ferve for the nourifhment 

 of the inhabitants. 



The boats having gone within a hundred me- 

 ters of the coaft, found no bottom with thirty- 

 three fathoms of line; the reefs by which it is 

 guarded, prevented them from approaching it 

 any nearer. 



A great number of the natives advanced on 

 that fide ; we already few upwards of a hundred 

 and fifty employing all forts of means to pcrfuade 

 us to land on their ifland; but the reefs oppofed 



* Sec Hrfwkf/hvtrrJi's Colleflion cf Voyages^ 4*0 edition, vol. i. 

 page 382, and following. T. 



an 



