The island is mountainous and woody, but we found it pleasant when we were ashore; it produces the cabbage and cocoa-nut tree in great plenty, but the natives did not chuse to let us have any of the fruit. We saw also some rice grounds, but what other vegetable productions Nature has favoured them with, we had no opportunity to learn, as we staid here but two nights and one day. In the bay where the ship rode there is excellent fishing, though the surf runs very high: we hauled our seine with great success, but could easily perceive that it gave umbrage to the inhabitants, who consider all the fish about these islands as their own. There are two fine rivers that run into this bay, and the water is excellent: it was indeed so much better than what we had on board, that I filled as many casks with it as loaded the boat twice. While we lay here, some of the natives brought down an animal which had the body of a hare, and the legs of a deer; one of our officers bought it, and we should have been glad to have kept it alive, but it was impossible for us to procure for it such food as it would eat; it was therefore killed, and we found it very good food. All the while we lay here, we had the most violent thunder, lightning and rain, that I had ever known; and finding that nothing more was to be procured, we sailed again on Thursday morning, with a fine breeze off the land. In the afternoon, we tried the current, and found it set S.E. at the rate of a mile an hour. The variation here was 38’W. We certainly made this passage at an improper season of the year; for after we came into the latitude of Pulo Condore,

Voyaging Accounts