124 OTAHITE TO OHETEROA CHAP. VI 
expedients they make use of without success, till at last 
they find the watchmen asleep; they then go gently up to 
them, and lifting them off from the basket, which for security 
they have placed in their middle, they go off with their 
prize. The others awake and dance, but seem to show little 
regret for their loss, or indeed hardly to miss the basket 
at all. 
9th. We resolved to sail as soon as the people left off 
bringing provisions, which about noon they did, and we 
again launched out into the ocean in search of what chance 
and Tupia might direct us to. 
13th. Many albecores have been about the ship all 
this evening. Tupia took one, and had not his rod broken, 
would probably have taken many. He used an Indian 
fish-hook made of mother-of-pearl, so that it served at the 
same time for hook and bait. 
At noon to-day, high land in sight, which proves to be 
an island which Tupia calls Oheteroa. 
14th. The island of Oheteroa was to all appearance more 
barren than anything we have seen in these seas, the chief 
produce seeming to be etoa (from the wood of which the 
people make their weapons) ; indeed, everywhere along shore 
where we saw plantations, the trees were of this kind. It 
is without a reef, and the ground in the bay we were in was 
so foul and coralline, that although a ship might come almost 
close to the shore, she could not possibly anchor. 
The people seemed strong, lusty, and well made, but were 
rather browner than those we have left behind; they were 
not tattowed like them, but had instead black marks 
about as broad as my hand under their armpits, the sides 
of which marks were deeply indented. They had also 
smaller circles round their arms and legs. Their dress 
was indeed most singular, as well as the cloth of which 
it was made. It consisted of the same materials as the 
inhabitants of the other islands make use of, and was gener- 
ally dyed of a very bright deep yellow; upon this was spread 
in some cases a composition, either red or of a dark lead 
colour, which covered it like oil colour or varnish. Upon 
