[1] “The joy which this fortunate event spread on every countenance, is scarcely to be described.  We had been one hundred and three days out of sight of land; and the rigorous weather to the south, the fatigues of continual attendance during storms, or amidst dangerous masses of ice, the sudden changes of climate, and the long continuance of a noxious diet, all together had emaciated and worn out our crew.  The expectation of a speedy end to their sufferings, and the hope of finding the land stocked with abundance of fowls and planted with fruits, according to the accounts of the Dutch navigator, now filled them with uncommon alacrity and cheerfulness.”—­G.F.

Captain Cook was much indebted for now falling in with this island, to the superior means he possessed of ascertaining his longitude.  Byron, Carteret, and Bouganville, all missed it, although they took their departure from no greater a distance than the islands of Juan Fernandez.  Most of the writers who mention Easter Island, agree pretty well together as to its latitude, but the Spanish accounts are not less than thirty leagues erroneous as to its longitude.—­E.

    [2] See this in vol.  XI. p. 95 of this collection; but the description
    afterwards given is much more satisfactory.—­E.

[3] “He was of the middle size, about five feet eight inches high, and remarkably hairy on the breast, and all over the body.  His colour was a chesnut brown, his beard strong, but clipped short, and of a black colour, as was also the hair of his head, which was likewise cut short.  His ears were very long, almost hanging on his shoulders, and his legs punctured in compartments after a taste which we had observed no where else.  He had only a belt round his middle, from whence a kind of net-work descended before, too thin to conceal any thing from the sight.  A string was tied about his neck, and a flat bone, something shaped like a tongue, and about four inches long, was fastened to it, and hung down on the breast.  This he told us, was a porpoise’s bone (eavee toharra) expressing it exactly by the same words which an Otaheitean would have made use of.  Mahine, who had already expressed his impatience to go ashore, was much pleased to find that the inhabitants spoke a language so similar to his own, and attempted to converse with our new visitor several times, but was interrupted by the questions which many other persons in the ship put to him.”—­G.F.

[4] “Almost all of them were naked, some having only a belt round the middle, from whence a small bit of cloth, six or eight inches long, or a little net, hang down before.  A very few of them had a cloak which reached to the knees, made of cloth, resembling that of Otaheite in the texture, and stitched or quilted with thread to make it the more lasting.  Most of these cloaks were painted yellow with the turmeric root.”—­G.F.

[5] “After staying among the natives