The night was spent in standing off and on, and at day-break the next morning, I bore up for the lee or west side of the island, as neither anchorage nor landing appeared to be practicable on the south side, on account of a great surf[166], which broke every where with violence against the shore, or against the reef that surrounded it. We presently found that the island was inhabited, and saw several people, on a point of the land we had passed, wading to the reef, where, as they found the ship leaving them quickly, they remained. But others, who soon appeared in different parts, followed her course, and sometimes several of them collected into small bodies, who made a shouting noise altogether, nearly after the manner of the inhabitants of New Zealand. Between seven and eight o’clock, we were at the west north-west part of the island, and being near the shore, we could perceive with our glasses, that several of the natives, who appeared upon a sandy beach, were all armed with long spears and clubs, which they brandished in the air with signs of threatening, or, as some on board interpreted their attitudes, with invitations to land. Most of them appeared naked, except having a sort of girdle, which being brought up between the thighs, covered that part of the body. But some of them had pieces of cloth of different colours, white, striped, or chequered, which they wore as a garment thrown about their shoulders. And almost all of them had a white wrapper about their heads, not much unlike a turban; or, in some instances, like a high conical cap. We could also perceive that they were of a tawny colour, and in general of a middling stature, but robust, and inclining to corpulence.