Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/325

] mountain, the base of which was adorned with beautiful plantations of cocoa-nut trees, while its more elevated parts appeared to be allotted to the cultivation of different roots, which also furnish food to the inhabitants.

When the boats came within about fifty toises of the shore, they found no bottom with thirty-three fathoms of line; and the reefs, with which the island is bordered, prevented them from approaching nearer.

A great number of natives advanced to the beach. We counted more than an hundred and fifty, who practised every mean in their power, to induce us to land on their island; but the reefs were an obstacle which we could not surmount. They threw our people some cocoa-nuts, and were pleased and astonished to see with what facility they were opened with an axe.

One of the natives, distinguished from the rest by a double row of little shells, which adorned his forehead, appeared to possess great authority. He ordered one of the natives to swim towards us with some cocoa-nuts. The fear of approaching persons of whose intention he was ignorant, made the islander, swimming and defenceless, hesitate a moment. But the chief who, doubtless, was little accustomed to have his will disobeyed, did not allow him to reflect. Blows from a cudgel, which