we
could find no bottom, till within a cable's length of the breakers.
There we met with from forty to twenty fathoms depth, over sharp coral
rocks; so that anchoring would have been attended with much more danger
than landing.

While we were thus employed in reconnoitring the shore, great numbers of
the natives thronged down upon the reef, all armed as above mentioned.
Mourooa, who was now in my boat, probably thinking that this warlike
appearance hindered us from landing, ordered them to retire back. As
many of them complied, I judged he must be a person of some consequence
among them. Indeed, if we understood him right, he was the king's
brother. So great was the curiosity of several of them, that they took
to the water, and, swimming off to the boats, came on board them without
reserve. Nay, we found it difficult to keep them out; and still more
difficult to prevent their carrying off every thing they could lay their
hands upon. At length, when they perceived that we were returning to the
ships, they all left us, except our original visitor Mourooa. He, though
not without evident signs of fear, kept his place in my boat, and
accompanied me on board the ship.

The cattle, and other new objects, that presented themselves to him
there, did not strike him with so much surprise as one might have
expected. Perhaps his mind was too much taken up about his own safety,
to allow him to attend to other things. It is certain, that he seemed
very uneasy; and the ship, on our getting on board, happening to be
standing off shore, this circumstance made him the more so. I could get
but little new information from him; and therefore, after he had made a
short stay, I ordered a boat to carry him in toward the land. As soon as
he got out of the cabin, he happened to stumble over one of the goats.
His curiosity now overcoming his fear, he stopped, looked at it, and
asked Omai, what bird this was? and not receiving an immediate answer
from him, he repeated the question to some of the people upon deck. The
boat having conveyed him pretty near to the surf, he leaped into the
sea, and swam ashore. He had no sooner landed, than the multitude of his
countrymen gathered round him, as if with an eager curiosity to learn
from him what he had seen; and in this situation they remained, when we
lost sight of them. As soon as the boat returned, we hoisted her in, and
made sail from the land to the northward.

Thus were we obliged to leave, unvis