PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
155 
also of coral, three-quarters of a mile in length, well wooded, and steep 
all round. At a mile distance from it we could get no bottom with 400 
fathoms. We could perceive no lagoon ; and the surf ran too high to 
admit of landing. Some slabs placed erect, and a hut, showed it had 
once been inhabited ; but the only living things we saw were birds and 
turtle. M. Eougainville gave this island the name of Les Lanciers, in 
consequence of the men whom he saw on it, being armed with long 
spears, and who probably were visiters from the island we had just left. 
From 'I'hrum Cap we steered for Egmont Island, the second 
discovery of Captain Wallis, which we shortly saw from the mast-head, 
and by sunset were close to it. The next morning the shore was very 
carefully examined, and we found the reef so low toward the centre 
that in high tides there can be no communication with the extremities, 
the island is steep, like all the other coral islands, and well wooded 
yith cocoa-nut and pandanus-trees, and has one of the large clumps at 
its N. W. extremity. 
Upon the windward island we perceived about fifty inhabitants 
collected upon the beach ; the men in one groupe, armed in the same 
banner as the Lagoon Islanders, and the women in another place more 
inland. No boat could land on this or on any other part of the island: 
to leeward the S. W. swell rolled even more heavily upon the shore 
than that occasioned by the trade-wind on the opposite side : we were 
lu consequence obliged to trade with the natives in the manner pursued 
^t Lagoon Island. Two of the islanders, when they thought we were 
going to land, advanced with slow strides, and went through a number 
Ilf pantomimic gestures, which we could not understand, except that 
they were of a friendly nature. This lasted until the boats anchored 
cutside the reef, and they were invited to accept some pieces of “ toki.” 
Clold and silver are not more valued in European countries, than iron, 
®ven in its rudest form, is by the islanders of Polynesia. At the sound 
of the word, the two spokesmen, and all the natives, who had before 
been seated under the shade of the trees, ran off to their huts, and 
I’ought down whatever they thought likely to obtain a piece of the 
precious substance, — mats, bands, nets, oyster-shells, hooks, and a va- 
Uety of small articles similar to those before described were offered for 
X 2 
CHAP. 
VII. 
Jan. 
1826 ‘. 
