In heaving in the coasting cable, it parted in the middle of its length, being chafed by the rocks. By this accident we lost the other half, together with the anchor, which lay in forty fathoms water, without any buoy to it. The best bower-cable suffered also by the rocks; by which a judgment may be formed of this anchorage. At ten o'clock we got under sail; but as our decks were much encumbered with fruit, &c. we kept plying under the land till they were cleared.[9] The supplies we got at this isle, were about one hundred and fifty pigs, twice that number of fowls, as many bananoes and cocoa-nuts as we could find room for, with a few yams; and had our stay been longer, we no doubt might have got a great deal more. This in some degree shews the fertility of the island, of which, together with the neighbouring one of Middleburg, I shall now give a more particular account. [1] "A party of the marines were posted on the beach in case of danger, to protect the captain's clerk, who traded for provisions. The natives did not express either surprise or dislike at this proceeding, perhaps, because they were unacquainted with its meaning. They received us with acclamations of joy as at Ea-oonhe, and desired us to sit down with them on the rocks along shore, which consisted of coral, and were covered with shell sand. We purchased several beautiful parroquets, pigeons, and doves, which they brought to us perfectly tame; and our young Borabora man, Mahine (or Odeedee), traded with great eagerness for ornaments made of bright red feathers, which he assured us had an extraordinary value at Otaheite and the Society Islands. Here they were commonly pasted to aprons used in their dances, and made of the fibres of cocoa-nuts, or fixed upon bananoe leaves, forming rhomboidal frontlets or diadems; and with a degree of extacy, which gave the greatest weight to his assertion, he shewed us that a little piece of feather-work, as broad as two or three fingers, would purchase the largest hog in his island."--G.F.