70
VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
beach, where cocoa trees appear in greater numbers, than I have ſeen in any other place. There is alſo a rivulet of water eighteen or twenty feet in breadth, which is ſupplied from a baſin, one mile diſtant within land, in which our crew, to avoid the ſharks, went and bathed. Although this bay is ſo ſmall, it is very convenient, and as ſecure, as the anchoring places generally are, which are not entirely ſheltered. Its principal inconvenience ariſes from the conſtant rains; as out of the four days we were beating off it, it rained during three of them, in the offing, and ſometimes with heavy ſtorms of lightning and thunder. Thoſe, who were on ſhore, experienced an equal continuance of the wet weather; and ſo thick was the rain, that, for eight hours together, we have not been able to ſee twice the length of the ſhip: but this may not be the caſe at all ſeaſons. The woollen clothes of thoſe who went on ſhore, which, had been particularly moiſt from perſpiration, and were hung on the buſhes to dry, were ſoon fly-blown, in the different parts that had ſtuck neareſt to the body, and covered with maggots. Should a veſſel touch here to recover her ſick, or to water, or to wait any time, fire would remove the flies; and, as no tent would be ſufficient to keep out the water, I would recommend the erection of an houſe, wood being in great plenty, and at hand, with cocoa tree leaves in abundance, to thatch it. I ſaw no plant,
