Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/227

] noes, expressing great regret at our quitting their island. They cried out from all parts, offa, offa Palançois, at the same time giving us marks of their regard.

We soon got ahead of the canoes that were paddled along; but those with sails were obliged to slacken their rate of going, to keep at a short distance from us; and we had an opportunity of observing, that they would have taken the lead of our vessels considerably, if they had availed themselves of the whole force of the breeze: this advantage, however, they would soon have lost, if the wind had been stronger, and the water less smooth. As soon as we got into the open sea, they desisted from keeping us company any farther. We were then more than two leagues from the anchoring place we had just quitted, and we set the west end of Attata, bearing south 48° west.

At this time we had a gravelly bottom, with twenty-two fathoms and a half of water.

11th. The next day, about five in the afternoon, we made Tortoise Island, bearing from us north-west by north.

On the 16th, about seven o'clock in the evening, the Esperance made a signal for seeing land west 18° north, about eight leagues' distance. This was Erronan, the easternmost of the islands