At six o'clock in the morning of the 8th, we brought-to on the west side of it, at the distance of about three quarters of a mile from the shore, but we had no soundings with one hundred and forty fathom of line. We now perceived several other low islands, or rather peninsulas, most of them being joined one to the other by a neck of land, very narrow, and almost level with the surface of the water, which breaks high over it. In approaching these islands the cocoa-nut trees are first discovered, as they are higher than any part of the surface. I sent a boat with an officer from each ship to sound the lee-side of these islands for an anchoring-place; and as soon as they left the ship, I saw the Indians run down to the beach in great numbers, armed with long spears and clubs; they kept abreast of the boats as they went sounding along the shore, and used many threatening gestures to prevent their landing; I therefore fired a nine-pound shot from the ship over their heads, upon which they ran into the woods with great precipitation.[37] At ten o'clock the boats returned, but could get no soundings close in with the surf, which broke very high upon the shore. The middle of this cluster of islands lies in latitude 14°10'S., longitude 144°52'W.; the variation of the compass was here 4°30'E. At half an hour after ten, we bore away and made sail to the westward, finding it impossible to procure at these islands any refreshment for our sick, whose situation was becoming more deplorable every hour, and I therefore called them the _Islands of Disappointment._ SECTION IX. _The Discovery of King George's Islands, with a Description of them, and an Account of several Incidents that happened there._