tance, and he then advanced quite to the water's edge; in
one hand he held the green branch of a tree, and in the other he grasped
his beard, which he pressed to his bosom; in this attitude he made a
long oration, or rather song, for it had a musical cadence which was by
no means disagreeable. We regretted infinitely that we could not
understand what he said to us, and not less that he could not understand
any thing which we should say to him; to shew our good-will, however, we
threw him some trifling presents, while he was yet speaking, but he
would neither touch them himself, nor suffer them to be touched by
others till he had done: He then walked into the water, and threw our
people the green branch, after which he took up the things which had
been thrown from the boats. Every thing now having a friendly
appearance, our people made signs that they should lay down their arms,
and most of them having complied, one of the midshipmen, encouraged by
this testimony of confidence and friendship, leaped out of the boat with
his clothes on, and swam through the surf to shore. The Indians
immediately gathered round him, and began to examine his clothes with
great curiosity; they seemed particularly to admire his waistcoat, and
being willing to gratify his new friends, he took it off, and presented
it to them; this courtesy, however, produced a disagreeable effect, for
he had no sooner given away his waistcoat; than one of the Indians very
ingeniously untied his cravat, and the next moment snatched it from his
neck, and ran away with it. Our adventurer, therefore, to prevent his
being stripped by piece-meal, made the best of his way back again to the
boat: Still, however, we were upon good terms, and several of the
Indians swam off to our people, some of them bringing a cocoa-nut, and
others a little fresh water in a cocoa-nut shell. But the principal
object of our boats was to obtain some pearls; and the men, to assist
them in explaining their meaning, had taken with them some of the pearl
oyster-shells which they had found in great numbers upon the coast; but
all their endeavours were ineffectual, for they could not, even with
this assistance, at all make themselves understood. It is indeed
probable that we should have succeeded better, if an intercourse of any
kind could have been established between us, but it was our misfortune
that no anchorage could be found for the ships. As all Indians are fond
of beads, it can scarcely