a piece of narrow stuff wrapped about the waist,
and made to pass between the thighs, to cover the adjoining parts;
but some of those whom we saw upon the beach, where about a hundred
persons had assembled, were entirely clothed with a kind of white
garment. We could observe, that some of our visitors in the canoes
wore pearl shells hang about the neck as an ornament. One of them kept
blowing a large conch-shell, to which a reed near two feet long
was fixed; at first, with a continued tone of the same kind, but he
afterward converted it into a kind of musical instrument, perpetually
repeating two or three notes, with the same strength. What the blowing
the conch portended, I cannot say, but I never found it the messenger
of peace.

Their canoes appeared to be about thirty feet long, and two feet above
the surface of the water, as they floated. The fore part projected a
little, and had a notch cut across, as if intended to represent the
mouth of some animal. The after part rose, with a gentle curve, to the
height of two or three feet, turning gradually smaller, and, as well
as the upper part of the sides, was carved all over. The rest of the
sides, which were perpendicular, were curiously incrustated with flat
white shells, disposed nearly in concentric semicircles, with the
curve upward. One of the canoes carried seven, and the other eight
men, and they were managed with small paddles, whose blades were
nearly round. Each of them had a pretty long outrigger; and they
sometimes paddled, with the two opposite sides together so close, that
they seemed to be one boat with two outriggers, the rowers turning
their faces occasionally to the stern, and pulling that way, without
paddling the canoes round. When they saw us determined to leave them,
they stood up in their canoes, and repeated something very loudly in
concert, but we could not tell whether this was meant as a mark of
their friendship or enmity. It is certain, however, that they had no
weapons with them, nor could we perceive with our glasses that those
on shore had any.[2]

[Footnote 2: This is the island on which Fletcher Christian, chief
mutineer of the Bounty, attempted to form a settlement in 1789, as we
shall have occasion to notice when treating of another voyage.--E.]

After leaving this island, from the discovery of which future
navigators may possibly derive some advantage, I steered to the N.
with a fresh gale at E. by S., and, at day-break in the mor