eat fury;
there was also a great surf all round it. We soon perceived that it was
inhabited, for many of the natives appeared upon the beach, with spears
in their hands that were at least sixteen feet long. They presently made
several large fires, which we supposed to be a signal; for we
immediately perceived several fires upon the larger island that was to
windward of us, by which we knew that also to be inhabited. I sent the
boat with an officer to look for an anchoring-place, who, to our great
regret and disappointment, returned with an account that he had been all
round the island, and that no bottom could be found within less than a
cable's length of the shore, which was surrounded close to the beach
with a steep coral rock.[36] The scurvy by this time had made dreadful
havock among us, many of my best men being now confined to their
hammocks; the poor wretches who were able to crawl upon the deck, stood
gazing at this little paradise, which Nature had forbidden them to
enter, with sensations which cannot easily be conceived; they saw
cocoa-nuts in great abundance, the milk of which is, perhaps, the most
powerful antiscorbutic in the world: They had reason to suppose that
there were limes, bananas, and other fruits which are generally found
between the tropics; and, to increase their mortification, they saw the
shells of many turtle scattered about the shore. When I knew the
soundings; I could not forbear standing close round the island with the
ship, though I also knew it was impossible to procure any of the
refreshments which it produced. The natives ran along the shore abreast
of the ship, shouting and dancing; they also frequently brandished
their long spears, and then threw themselves backward, and lay a few
minutes motionless, as if they had been dead: This we understood as a
menace that they would kill us, if we ventured to go on shore. As we
were sailing along the coast, we took notice that in one place the
natives had fixed upright in the sand two spears, to the top of which
they had fastened several things that fluttered in the air, and that
some of them were every moment kneeling down before them, as we supposed
invoking the assistance of some invisible being to defend them against
us. While I was thus circumnavigating the island with the ship, I sent
the boats out again to sound, and when they came near the shore, the
Indians set up one of the most hideous yells I had ever heard, pointing
at the same tim