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264 and which they did not attempt to launch, in order to visit us. As night approached, it was necessary for us to go about, in order to get into the offing.

11th. A violent rain drenched us during the night, and was succeeded by a thick fog, which enveloped the land, and did not permit us to approach it, till some hours after sun-rise.

Some reefs, level with the water, and extending for some hundred toises, appeared about eleven o'clock, at the distance of 15,000 toises from the shore, which they warned us not to approach.

We saw the summits of the high mountains of Bougainville island piercing the clouds.

The land was again invested with a fog, and we were obliged to wait till the 13th before we could pursue our examination of the coast.

13th. We enjoyed the beautiful prospect of the high mountains gently falling into extensive plains, where however we observed no trace of cultivation. The whole scene was covered with trees, even to the highest elevations, which appeared to be at least twelve hundred toises in perpendicular height, and to be distant above twenty thousand toises from the shore.

Fires upon the hills announced the presence of the natives.

About half-past eleven o'clock, we thought ourselves