where we
anchored on a coral bottom in fourteen fathoms water.

The next day the islanders visited the vessel in great numbers all day
long, bringing, as on the day before, fruits, vegetables, and some pigs,
in exchange for which we gave them glass beads, iron rings, needles,
cotton cloth, &c.

Some of our gentlemen went ashore and were astonished to find a native
occupied in building a small sloop of about thirty tons: the tools of
which he made use consisted of a half worn-out axe, an adze, about
two-inch blade, made out of a paring chisel, a saw, and an iron rod
which he heated red hot and made it serve the purpose of an auger. It
required no little patience and dexterity to achieve anything with such
instruments: he was apparently not deficient in these qualities, for his
work was tolerably well advanced. Our people took him on board with
them, and we supplied him with suitable tools, for which he appeared
extremely grateful.

On the 14th, in the morning, while the ship's carpenter was engaged in
replacing one of the cat-heads, two composition sheaves fell into the
sea; as we had no others on board, the captain proposed to the
islanders, who are excellent swimmers, to dive for them, promising a
reward; and immediately two offered themselves. They plunged several
times, and each time brought up shells as a proof that they had been to
the bottom. We had the curiosity to hold our watches while they dove,
and were astonished to find that they remained four minutes under the
water. That exertion appeared to me, however, to fatigue them a great
deal, to such a degree that the blood streamed from their nostrils and
ears. At last one of them brought up the sheaves and received the
promised recompense, which consisted of four yards of cotton.

Karaka-koua bay where we lay, may be three quarters of a mile deep, and
a mile and a half wide at the entrance: the latter is formed by two low
points of rock which appear to have run down from the mountains in the
form of lava, after a volcanic eruption. On each point is situated a
village of moderate size; that is to say, a small group of the low huts
of the islanders. The bottom of the bay terminates in a bold
_escarpment_ of rock, some four hundred feet high, on the top of which
is seen a solitary cocoa-tree.

On the evening of the 14th, I went ashore with some other passengers,
and we landed at the group of cabins on the western point, of those
which I have described. The in