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HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



himself and say Jesus Maria. This being done, the shallop 

 being refitted, three crosses erected, and wood and water having 

 been stored, the squadron set sail again for the still-missing 

 archipelago. The soldiers soon became despondent, and the 

 €rews were placed upon short allowance. Fourteen hundred 

 leagues from Lima they saw a desert island, which they called 

 St. Bernardo ; and at fifteen hundred and thirty-five leagues' 

 distance they named an island the Solitary, "as it was alone." 

 Thus they continued their course, "many people giving their 

 sentiments, and saying they knew not whither they were going 

 nor what they were coming to, and other such things, which could 

 not fail of giving pain." At last, when eighteen hundred leagues 

 from Lima, they fell in with a large island, one hundred miles 

 in circuit, which Mendana named Santa Cruz — since called 

 Egmont Island by Carteret. Here was a volcano, "of a very 

 fine-shaped hill, from the top whereof issues much fire, and 

 which often makes a great thundering inside." Fifty small 

 boats rigged with sails came out to the ship. The men were 

 black, with woolly hair, dyed white, red, and blue. Their teeth 

 were tinged red, and their faces and bodies marked with streaks. 

 Their arms were bound round with bracelets of black rattan, 

 while their necks were decorated with strings of beads and 

 fishes' teeth. Mendana at once took them for the people he 

 sought. He spoke to them in the language he had learned 

 upon his first voyage ; but they neither understood him, nor he 

 them. Without provocation, they discharged a shower of arrows 

 at the ship, which lodged in the sails and the rigging, — without, 

 however, doing any mischief. The soldiers fired in return, kill- 

 ing one and wounding many more. 



Friendly relations were soon restored, and a savage, ap- 

 parently of high rank, visited the admiral in his ship. He was 

 lean and gray-headed, and his skin was of the "color of wheat." 

 He inquired who was the chief of the new-comers. The ad- 

 miral received him with cordiality, and gave him to understand 



