Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/178

146 to be carried into our long-boat, while others of the natives, in obedience to the orders of Toobou, were filling it with the eatables taken from the pyramids, that had been erected for our Commander. In a very little time, every thing was ready for our departure.

Our boats having been obliged to push off from the shore, on account of the low water, we could not reach them but by crossing a coral bank covered with water for more than three hundred paces: but we found the natives extremely civil; for, that we might not be wetted, they carried us to some rocks just above water, to which others came with their canoes to fetch us, and conveyed us to our boats.

The men who carried us appeared well satisfied with the articles we gave them for their trouble; but in this short passage others contrived to gain still more, by robbing us at their ease, after having crept slily behind us, while their countrymen had us on their backs. All these pickpockets, however, did not meet with equal success, for we gave chace to some, whom we forced to restore what they had taken.

As soon as we got on board, the commanding officer informed us that, during our absence, he had caused a native to be seized, at the moment when he was going off with several articles of