lls.
Toward the bottom of this bay there is foul corally ground, extending
upward of a mile from the shore, without which the soundings are regular,
with good anchorage, in twenty fathoms. The country, as far as the eye
could reach, seemed fruitful and well inhabited, the soil being in
appearance of the same kind with the district of Kaoo; but no fresh water
is to be got here.

I have hitherto confined myself to the coasts of this island, and the
adjacent country, which is all that I had an opportunity of being
acquainted with from my own observation. The only account I can give of the
interior parts, is from the information I obtained from a party, who set
out on the afternoon of the 26th of January, on an expedition up the
country, with an intention of penetrating as far as they could; and
principally of reaching, if possible, the snowy mountains.

Having procured two natives to serve them as guides, they left the village
about four o'clock in the afternoon, directing their course a little to the
southward of the east. To the distance of three or four miles from the bay,
they found the country as before described; the hills afterward rose with a
more sudden ascent, which brought them to the extensive plantations that
terminate the view of the country, as seen from the ships.

These plantations consist of the tarrow[4], or eddy root, and the sweet
potatoe, with plants of the cloth tree, neatly set out in rows. The walls
that separate them are made of the loose burnt stones, which are got in
clearing the ground; and being entirely concealed by sugar-canes, planted
close on each side, make the most beautiful fences that can be conceived.
The party stopped for the night at the second hut they found amongst the
plantations, where they judged themselves to be about six or seven miles
from the ships. They described the prospect from this spot as very
delightful; they saw the ships in the bay before them; to the left a
continued range of villages, interspersed with groves of cocoa-nut trees,
spreading along the sea-shore; a thick wood stretching out of sight behind
them; and to the right an extent of ground, laid out in regular and well-
cultivated plantations, as far as the eye could reach.

Near this spot, at a distance from any other dwelling, the natives pointed
out to them the residence of a hermit, who, they said, had formerly been a
great chief and warrior, but had long ago quitted the shores of the island,
and now