f the bay, where there is sixteen and
fourteen fathom upon an oosy bottom. The shore of the bay is a fine
sandy beach, behind which runs a river of fresh water, so that any
number of ships may water here without incommoding each other; but the
only wood for firing, upon the whole island, is that of fruit-trees,
which must be purchased of the natives, or all hope of living upon good
terms with them given up.

The face of the country, except that part of it which borders upon the
sea, is very uneven; it rises in ridges that run up into the middle of
the island, and there form mountains, which may be seen at the distance
of sixty miles: Between the foot of these ridges and the sea, is a
border of low land, surrounding the whole island, except in a few places
where the ridges rise directly from the sea: The border of low land is
in different parts of different breadths, but no where more than a mile
and a half. The soil, except upon the very tops of the ridges, is
extremely rich and fertile, watered by a great number of rivulets of
excellent water, and covered with fruit-trees of various kinds, some of
which are of a stately growth and thick foliage, so as to form, one
continued wood; and even the tops of the ridges, though in general they
are bare, and burnt up by the sun, are, in some parts, not without their
produce.

The low land that lies between the foot of the ridges and the sea, and
some of the vallies, are the only parts of the island that are
inhabited, and here it is populous; the houses do not form villages or
towns, but are ranged along the whole border at the distance of about
fifty yards from each other, with little plantations of plantains, the
tree which furnishes them with cloth. The whole island, according to
Tupia's account, who certainly knew, could furnish six thousand seven
hundred and eighty fighting men, from which the number of inhabitants
may easily, be computed.[1]

[Footnote 1: It is questionable if the whole existing population of the
island amount to the number now mentioned. Such has been the decrease of
its interesting but licentious inhabitants since the time of Cook, to
which, it is melancholy to be obliged to say, their intercourse with
Europeans has most rapidly contributed. The reader is referred, for some
information on this point, to the account of Turnbull's voyage,
published in 1805. A few particulars as to the appearance of Otaheite,
on the authority of subsequent accounts, may