THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
63 
at the head of the harbour, hut caught only half a dozen 
lmall fifh. We had no better fuccefs next day, when we 
tried with hook and line. So that our only refource here, 
for frefh provilions, were birds, of which there was an in- 
exhauftible ftore. 
The morning of the 26th proved foggy, with rain. How¬ 
ever, we went to work to fill water, and to cut grafs for our 
cattle, which we found in fmall fpots near the head of the 
harbour. The rain which fell, fwelled all the rivulets to 
fuch a degree, that the fides of the hills, bounding the har¬ 
bour, feemed to be covered with a fheet of water. For the 
rain, as it fell, run into the fifiures and crags of the rocks 
that compofed the interior parts of the hills, and was pre¬ 
cipitated down their fides in prodigious torrents. 
The people having wrought hard the two preceding days, 
and nearly completed our water, which we filled from a 
brook at the left corner of the beach, I allowed them the 
27th as a day of reft, to celebrate Chriftmas. Upon this 
indulgence, many of them went on firore, and made excur- 
fions, in different directions, into the country, which they 
found barren and defolate in the higheft degree. In the 
evening, one of them brought to me a quart bottle which 
he had found, fattened with fome wire to a projecting rock 
on the North fide of the harbour. This bottle contained a 
piece of parchment, on which was written the following 
infcription : 
f 
1776^. 
December; 
'---> 
Thurfday z6„ 
Friday z~. 
Ludovico 
