Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/422

394 the same notes. The natives love to play in unison, and apply one hand to each branch.

I returned to the town, in a dark night, when the water in the road, presented to my view collections of little bodies, which illuminated large portions of the surface. The water which I took up in the most luminous parts, left on the filtre, through which they were passed, little molecules which differed in no respect from those which I had already examined, before our arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, and in other places, at a great distance from land. We made the land near the town, at the moment of high water, and were obliged to wade, more than 150 toises, through the water, which was so shallow as not to admit our canoes to come near enough the shore to land us. The fishermen were kindling their fires to decoy the fish, which the tide had brought thither in such numbers, that we saw their nets filled with them.

9th and 10th. The two next days were employed in viewing the vicinity of the town. I was surprized to find in so small an island, so many different species of vegetables; but doubtless its proximity to Ceram had enriched it with part of the plants of that extensive island.

In the evening, the Governor gave an entertainment, this having been the anniversary of one of