Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/313

 "nAWriEll's VOYAGES. 157

circle. The breast, belly, and under-part of the wings of this noddy were white ; and the back and upper-part of its W'ings of a faint black or snioak colour. Noddies are seen in most places between the tropicks, as well as in the East Indies, and on the coast of Brazil, as in the West Indies. They rest ashore a nights, and therefore we never see them far at sea, not above twenty or thirty leagues, unless driven of}' in a storm ; when they come about a ship they commonly perch in the night, and will sit still till they are taken by the seamen. They build on cliffs against the sea, or rocks, as I have said.

The oOth day, being in latitude 18° 21', we made the land again, and saw many great smoaks near the shore ; and having fair weather and moderate breezes, I steer'd in towards it. At four in the afternoon I anchor'd in eight fathom water, clear sand, about three leagues and a half from the shore. I presently sent my boat to sound nearer in, and they found ten fathom about a mile farther in ; and from thence still farther in the water decreased gradually to nine, eight, seven, and two mile distance to six fathom. This evening we saw an eclipse of the moon, but it was abating before the moon appear'd to us ; for the horizon was very hazy, so that we could not see the moon till she had been half an hour above the horizon : and at two hours, twenty- two minutes after sunset, by the reckoning of our glasses, the eclipse was quite gone, which was not of many digits. The moon's center was then 33^ 40' high.

The 31st of August betimes in the morning, I went ashore with ten or eleven men to search for water. We went armed with muskets and cutlasses for our defence, expecting to see people there ; and carried also shovels and pickaxes to dig M'ells. When we came near the shore we saw three tall black naked men on the sandy bay a-head of us : but as we row'd in, they went away. When we were landed, I sent the boat with two men in her to lie a little from the shore at