OP LA PEROUSE. 277 



very extenfive cove formed by their fhorcs, and 

 we kept at about three kilometers from the coall. 

 We founded feveral times with a line of fixty- 

 eight fathoms without finding bottom. 



We perceived a great many cocoa-palms on 

 moft of the iflots. A vaft concourfe of natives 

 had come down to the fhore, and fome advanced 

 as far as the adjacent reefs. The iflots where we 

 remarked no cocoa-nut trees feemed to be unin- 

 habited, for we did not fee on them a tingle 

 perfon. 



Several canoes were launched, a great many 

 were ftill on the beach, and fix which had juft 

 fet their fails directed their courfe towards us. 

 We immediately brought to, in order to wait for 

 them : fome were conducted by feven men, and 

 others by nine. Having got within the diftance 

 of fix hundred meters of our fhip, thefe favages 

 took in their fail, and made ufe of their paddles, 

 to come ftill nearer to us. Each canoe was under 

 the orders of a chief, who, from the middle of a 

 platform on which he flood up, directed all its 

 movements. As foon as thefe canoes had ad- 

 vanced about three hundred meters by paddling, 

 they flopped, and from this diflance one of thefe 

 chiefs raifed his voice and made a fpeech to us : 

 his eloquence was quite loft ; but the figns which 

 he made left us no doubt that he was inviting us 

 to come on fhore. The paddlers, probably, were 



t 3 not 



