Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/331

] easterly island of the Arsacides, formerly called the Island of St. Christopher, and belonging to the archipelago of Solomon, discovered by Mendana. It now bore north, and soon after we descried the Isle des Contrariétés, which about noon bore E. 14° N. to E. 30° N. at a distance of 5,180 toises, we being in 9° 53′ S. lat. 159° 8′ E. long. This small island is rather mountainous and very woody.

We soon coasted along the small islands called the Three Sisters, after which we plied to windward, in order to get to the southward, so as to pass the strait which separates the island called by Mendana Guadal-canal from that of St. Christopher.

About eight in the evening the Esperance came near enough to us to acquaint us, by the speaking-trumpet, of a piece of treachery which had been practised upon her crew by the islanders. She had been surrounded, during the preceding night, by a great number of canoes, from which only two of the natives came on board. These savages commended, in very high terms, the fruits of their island, and promised to give a great quantity of them to our men, if they would come on shore: at length they departed about midnight; but amongst the number of canoes which remained near the Esperance, one was observed much