Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/252

194 29th. Our water having been got on board the day before yesterday, and nothing done yesterday but getting a small quantity of wood and a large supply of excellent celery, with which this country abounds, we this morning sailed.

30th. Before noon we passed by a cape which the captain judged to be the easternmost point of the country, and therefore called it East Cape, at least till another is found which better deserves that name.

1st November. Just at nightfall we were under a small island, from whence came off a large double canoe, or rather two canoes lashed together at a distance of about a foot, and covered with boards so as to make a kind of deck. She came pretty near the ship, and the people in her talked with Tupia with much seeming friendship; but when it was just dark they ran the canoe close to the ship and threw in three or four stones, after which they paddled ashore.

2nd. Passed this morning between an island and the main, which appeared low and sandy, with a remarkable hill inland: flat and smooth as a molehill, though very high and large. Many canoes and people were seen along shore. Some followed us, but could not overtake us. A sailing canoe that had chased us ever since daybreak then came up with us, and proved the same double canoe which had pelted us last night, so that we prepared for another volley of their ammunition, dangerous to nothing on board but our windows. The event proved as we expected, for after having sailed with us an hour they threw their stones again. A musket was fired over them and they dropped astern, not, I believe, at all frightened by the musket, but content with having showed their courage by twice insulting us. We now begin to know these people, and are much less afraid of any daring attempt from them than we were.

The country appeared low, with small cliffs near the shore, but seemingly very fertile inland; we saw plainly with our glasses villages larger than any we had before seen, situated on the tops of cliffs in places almost in-