Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/345

] about 25,000 toises. Their high lands seemed, at a distance, to leave intervals between them sufficient to afford us a passage; but we soon perceived their low-lands advancing into the sea, and distinguished the reefs which connected them together.

That little cluster is composed of thirteen small islands, having in the middle, like the Admiralty Islands, a principal one, extending from south-west to north-east by east, about 15,000 toises. The islets which surround it on all sides, except the south, are very small and very low.

We were 10,000 toises to the northward of those islands, and to the leeward of the northern point of the great island, when we saw some canoes under sail. They were behind the reefs, in which we saw no opening through which they could pass, and we believed that they could not surmount such obstacles; but, having come close to the reefs, they took in their sail, and, going into the water, they carried their vessels fairly over the rocks into the open sea.

The canoe which was first got over steered towards our ship, and the rest, being five in number, presently followed; but as their motions were slow, they were soon nearer to the Esperance, which was in our wake, and they advanced towards her. After manœuvring with much in- telligence