our people, had
landed, and our impatience to know the event may be easily conceived. In
order to observe their motions, and to be ready to give them such
assistance as they might want, and our respective situations would admit
of, I kept as near the shore as was prudent. I was sensible, however,
that the reef was as effectual a barrier between us and our friends who
had landed, and put them as much beyond the reach of our protection, as
if half the circumference of the globe had intervened. But the
islanders, it was probable, did not know this so well as we did. Some of
them, now and then, came off to the ships in their canoes, with a few
cocoa nuts; which they exchanged for whatever was offered to them,
without seeming to give the preference to any particular article.

These occasional visits served to lessen my solicitude about our people
who had landed. Though we could get no information from our visitors,
yet their venturing on board seemed to imply, at least, that their
countrymen on shore had not made an improper use of the confidence put
in them. At length, a little before sun-set, we had the satisfaction of
seeing the boats put off. When they got on board, I found that Mr Gore
himself, Omai, Mr Anderson, and, Mr Burney, were the only persons who
had landed. The transactions of the day were now fully reported to me by
Mr Gore; but Mr Anderson's account of them being very particular, and
including some remarks on the island and its inhabitants, I shall give
it a place here, nearly in his own words.

"We rowed toward a small sandy beach, upon which, and upon the adjacent
rocks, a great number of the natives had assembled; and came to an
anchor within a hundred yards of the reef, which extends about as far,
or a little farther, from the shore. Several of the natives swam off,
bringing cocoa-nuts; and Omai, with their countrymen, whom we had with
us in the boats, made them sensible of our wish to land. But their
attention was taken up, for a little time, by the dog, which had been
carried from the ship, and was just brought on shore, round whom they
flocked with great eagerness. Soon after, two canoes came off; and, to
create a greater confidence in the islanders, we determined to go
unarmed, and run the hazard of being treated well or ill."

"Mr Burney, the first lieutenant of the Discovery, and I went in one
canoe, a little time before the other; and our conductors, watching
attentively the motions of the surf,