Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/289

] excessive, and we were attacked by a cloud of musquitoes, which tormented us very much, by stinging every part of the body, not even sparing our eyes and ears. Fortunately a breeze of wind springing up soon after, relieved us from their persecutions, by dispersing them.

Soon after this we arrived on the borders of a deep canal, which went in an inland direction to the foot of a very craggy mountain. This canal served as a harbour for the islanders, three of whom we saw enter it in a double canoe, which they immediately fastened with a rope tied to the foot of a tree on the same side we were. They then went at a slow pace towards the small hills on the south-east, pretending not to have perceived us. Their canoe was the only one in the harbour. We made use of it to cross to the other side, where we found a small cottage, the plantations contiguous to which had been recently laid waste. We full perceived some remains of Caribee cabbages, and of sugar canes. The tops of all the cocoa trees had been cut off, and perhaps inhabitants had fallen victims to the voracity of the barbarians who had thus destroyed them.

Till then we had never met with any of the tombs of the savages, except close by their huts, but we now found one at a great distance from