any of them to come on board.  I tied some brass medals to a rope, and gave them to those in one of the canoes, who, in return, tied some small mackerel to the rope as an equivalent.  This was repeated; and some small nails, or bits of iron, which they valued more than any other article, were given them.  For these they exchanged more fish and a sweet potatoe, a sure sign that they had some notion of bartering, or, at least, of returning one present for another.  They had nothing else in their canoes, except some large gourd shells, and a kind of fishing-net; but one of them offered for sale the piece of stuff that he wore round his waist, after the manner of the other islands.  These people were of a brown colour; and, though of the common size, were stoutly made.  There was little difference in the casts of their colour, but a considerable variation in their features, some of their visages not being very unlike those of Europeans.  The hair of most of them was cropt pretty short, others had it flowing loose, and, with a few, it was tied in a bunch on the crown of the head.  In all it seemed to be naturally black; but most of them had stained it, as is the practice of the Friendly Islanders, with some stuff which gave it a brown or burnt colour.  In general they wore their beards.  They had no ornaments about their persons, nor did we observe that their ears were perforated; but some were punctured on the hands, or near the groin, though in a small degree; and the bits of cloth which they wore, were curiously-stained with red, black, and white colours.  They seemed very mild, and had no arms of any kind, if we except some small stones, which they had evidently brought for their own defence, and these they threw overboard when they found that they were not wanted.

Seeing no signs of an anchoring-place at this eastern extreme of the island, I bore away to leeward, and ranged along the S.E. side, at the distance of half a league from the shore.  As soon as we made sail the canoes left us; but others came off as we proceeded along the coast, bringing with them roasting-pigs, and some very fine potatoes, which they had exchanged, as the others had done, for whatever was offered to them.  Several small pigs were purchased for a sixpenny nail, so that we again found ourselves in a land of plenty, and just at the time when the turtle, which we had so fortunately procured at Christmas Island, were nearly expended.  We passed several villages, some seated near the sea, and others farther up the country.  The inhabitants of all of them crowded to the shore, and collected themselves on the elevated places to view the ships.  The land upon this side of the island rises in a gentle slope, from the sea to the foot of the mountains, which occupy the centre of the country, except at one place near the east end, where they rise directly from the sea, and seemed to be formed of nothing but stone, or rocks lying in horizontal strata.  We saw no wood but what was up in the interior part of the island, except a few trees about the villages, near which, also, we could observe several plantations of plantains and sugar-canes, and spots that seemed cultivated for roots.