THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
181 
diftant. The wind was at Eaft South Eaft; fo that we were 1777. 
under a neceffity of making a few boards, to get up to the , December ’, 
lee, or Weft fide; where we found from forty to twenty and 
fourteen fathoms water, over a bottom of fine fand; the 
leaft depth about half a mile from the breakers, and the 
greateft about one mile. The meeting with foundings de¬ 
termined me to anchor, with a view to try to get fome 
turtles ; for the iiland feemed to be a likely place to meet 
with them, and to be without inhabitants. Accordingly, we 
dropped anchor in thirty fathoms; and then a boat was 
difpatched to examine whether it was practicable to land ; 
of which I had fome doubt, as the fea broke in a dreadful 
furf all along the fhore. When the boat returned, the offi¬ 
cer, whom I had intrufted with this examination, reported 
to me, that he could fee no place where a boat could land; 
but that there was great abundance of fiffi in the fhoaL 
water, without the breakers. 
At day-break, the next morning, I fent two boats, one Thurfday 25, 
from each fliip, to fearch more accurately for a landing- 
place ; and, at the fame time, two others, to fifti at a 
grappling near the fhore. Thefe laft returned about eight 
o’clock, with upward of two hundred weight of fifh. En¬ 
couraged by this fuccefs, they were difpatched again after 
breakfaft; and I then went in another boat, to take a view 
of the coaft, and attempt landing; but this I found to be 
wholly impracticable. Toward noon, the two boats, fent on 
the fame fearch, returned. The mafter, who was in that 
belonging to the Refolution, reported to me, that, about a 
league and a half to the North, was a break in the land, and 
a channel into the lagoon , confequently, that there was a fit 
place for landing ; and that he had found the fame found¬ 
ings off this entrance, as we had where we now lay. In 
confequence 
