151 
for it evinces that my master was like 
other masters, desirous to know if his 
servant came honestly in possession of 
the cocoanuts. He then ordered me 
and his son to launch the canoe, which 
we did, got under sail for the Island we 
left the day before, and arrived back at 
night. We learned that during our ab¬ 
sence the natives had caught a consider¬ 
able quantity of fish ; and in a few days 
we caught a large quantity more ; load¬ 
ed our canoe, and embarked for one of 
the head Islands to pay a, visit, where 
we stopped some time. On our. return, 
we commenced catching a kind of fish 
called by the natives kierick. They 
are about the size of a small codfish ; 
and the manner of taking them is very 
curious—they make a line of the husk 
of cocoanuts, about the size of a cod 
line ; they then in the canoe pass round 
the fish to the windward of the flat, 
then lie to till a considerable quantity of 
them get on the flat, then square away 
by the wind and run down and go round 
the flat with this line, and thus catch 
