no surf upon it, and where, if there was not water
for the ships, there was more than sufficient for the boats. But I did
not think proper to risk losing the advantage of a fair wind, for the
sake of examining an island that appeared to be of little consequence.
We stood in no need of refreshments, if I had been sure of meeting
with them there; and having already been so unexpectedly delayed in
my progress to the Society Islands, I was desirous of avoiding every
possibility of farther retardment. For this reason, after making
several unsuccessful attempts to induce these people to come
alongside, I made sail to the N., and left them, but not without
getting from them, during their vicinity to our ship, the name of
their island, which they called Toobouai.

It is situated in the latitude of 23 deg. 25' S., and in 210 37' E.
longitude. Its greatest extent, in any direction, exclusive of the
reef, is not above five or six miles. On the N.W. side, the reef
appears in detached pieces, between which the sea seems to break
upon the shore. Small as the island is, there are hills in it of a
considerable elevation. At the foot of the hills, is a narrow border
of flat land, running quite round it, edged with a white sand beach.
The hills are covered with grass, or some other herbage, except a few
steep rocky cliffs at one part, with patches of trees interspersed to
their summits. But the plantations are more numerous in some of the
vallies, and the flat border is quite covered with high, strong trees,
whose different kinds we could not discern, except some cocoa-palms,
and a few of the _etoa_. According to the information of the men in
the canoes, their island is stocked with hogs and fowls, and produces
the several fruits and roots that are found at the other islands in
this part of the Pacific Ocean.

We had an opportunity, from the conversation we had with those who
came off to us, of satisfying ourselves, that the inhabitants of
Toobouai speak the Otaheite language, a circumstance that indubitably
proves them to be of the same nation. Those of them whom we saw in the
canoes were a stout copper-coloured people, with straight black hair,
which some of them wore tied in a bunch on the crown of the head, and
others flowing about the shoulders. Their faces were somewhat round
and full, but the features, upon the whole, rather flat, and their
countenances seemed to express some degree of natural ferocity. They
had no covering but