THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
357 
beautiful diforder, and the reft covered with grafs. Near 1777. 
the fhore, again, it is quite fhaded with various trees, 
amongft which are the habitations of the natives; and to 
the right of our ftation, was one of the moft extenftve 
groves of cocoa-palms we had ever feen. 
The 13th, in the afternoon, a party of us made an excur- Sunday 13, 
lion to the higheft part of the ifland, which was a little to 
the right of our fhips, in order to have a full view of the 
country. About half way up, we crofted a deep valley, the 
bottom and ftdes of which, though compofed of hardly any 
thing but coral rock, were clothed with trees. We were 
now about two or three hundred feet above the level of the 
fea, and yet, even here, the coral was perforated into all the 
holes and inequalities, which ufually diverftfy the furface 
of this fubftance within the reach of the "tide. Indeed, w r e 
found the fame coral, till we began to approach the fum~ 
mits of the higheft hills; and, it was remarkable,, that 
thefe were chiefly compofed of a yellowifti, foft, fandy 
ftone. The foil, there, is, in general, a reddifh clay ; which, 
in many places, feemed to be very deep. On the moft ele¬ 
vated part of the whole ifland, we found a round platform, 
or mount of earth, fupported by a wall of coral ftones; to 
bring which, to fuch a height, mull have coft much labour. 
Our guides told us, that this mount had been ere£ted by 
order of their Chief; and that they, fometimes, met there 
to drink kava . They called it Etchee ; by which name, an 
erection, which we had feen at Tongataboo, as already 
mentioned, was diftinguilhed. Not many paces from it, 
was a fpring of excellent water; and, about a mile lower 
down, a running ftream, which, we were told, found its 
way to the fea, when the rains were copious. We alfo met 
with 
