chief gave one to me which was not equally acceptable. It was a mixture of fish, yams, and many other things, the odour of which, probably from the staleness of the composition, was very far from being agreeable. When we first landed, many of the natives repeated the word, Englees, as if to enquire whether we were of that nation, but when they understood that we were they shook their heads and said, Espagnol: possibly, therefore, the discovery of our nation might prevent them from being as courteous on shore as they had been in their canoes." [* Bamboos were the only water vessels in the Pelew Islands. See Wilson, chap. xxv. p. 312.] [* This was the Chinam, or coral, burnt to lime, always used with the betel. See Wilson's Account, p. 27. The Areca is the nut, the leaves only of betel are used. These are produced by different plants.] From some of the above circumstances it is undeniably evident that these people have had intercourse with Europeans, and probably with the Spaniards; and from the aversion which they expressed to the English, it seems not an unfair conjecture that this island might perhaps be Artingall, where our countrymen had distinguished themselves five years before by the assistance they gave to a hostile state*: but if so, their knowledge of the Spaniards must have been posterior to the departure of the English, who from the narrative must have been the first Europeans seen there. Had the adventures of the Antelope's crew been then made known to the world, Lieutenant Shortland would with joy have presented himself before the beneficent Abba Thulle; and probably by obtaining a stock of fresh provisions and vegetables might have preserved the lives of many of his companions, and prevented the sufferings of the rest; but he was not fortunate enough to know that so propitious a retreat was within so small a distance. [* It might, perhaps, be thought by some readers, that if this had been the case they would now have endeavoured to take revenge, but we find from Captain Wilson's narrative, that all animosity was dropped as soon as peace had been established with the inhabitants of Pelew. See that work, Chap. xvi. p. 192.] 23 September 1788 His people were doomed to find their distresses augmented instead of diminished. Towards the latter end of September, agues and intermittent fevers began to prevail among them; the proportion of those disabled by the scurvy was constantly great, some deaths had happened, and the few men who still had health enough to carry them with difficulty through the necessary duty, were subject to the swelling of the legs, and harrassed by violent pains in the breast. Hitherto the Friendship had been much more happily circumstanced. On the 23d of September she was spoken to, and had then only one man disabled by the scurvy: but this advantage was of short duration, and the more rapid increase of the malady made a fatal compensation for the greater delay of its commencement.