Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/265

] a single canoe had approached our vessels, which we thought was rather to be attributed to a smart gale which had blown the whole day, than to any fear of our resentment for the hostile disposition manifested by them the preceding evening.

We had formed a design, together with several persons belonging to the two vessels, to go and visit the other side of the mountains, bearing south of our moorings; for this purpose we assembled on the shore to the number of twenty-eight, early in the morning of the 20th. We had all agreed to come armed, that we might be able to render mutual assistance, in case the savages should venture to make an attack upon us.

We marched for a long while in paths that were well beaten, accompanied by some of the inhabitants, and many of us, in imitation of them, chewed the young sprouts of the hibiscus tiliaceus, and threw them away almost immediately; but to our great surprise the savages eagerly picked, them up, and chewed them over again without the least hesitation.

When we had reached the middle of the mountain we found very large blocks of mica, wherein we perceived granites which had lost their transparency, and most of them larger than a man's thumb. We found others farther on in the rocks