Passed the Tonga Islands on Novr. 16th and on the 18th saw Turtle Island, the southernmost of the Fegee Group. We passed through the passages between the island and on the 24th of Nov. anchored off Ovalou,[33] an island about 25 miles from Bow, the principal town of the Fegee Islands, where the King of the whole group resides. Here the 1st Officer and interpreter left the ship for Bow to have an interview with the King [Tanoa] and on the 26th he came on board in a very large double canoe with some of his principal warriors and two of his wives. The Captain purchased some tortoise shell of him and contracted with him for 2 large houses on an island a short distance from Bow where, on the 1st Dec., we commenced curing beche-le-mer. The interpreter and the Manilla men were employed on shore with a number of English sailors which we hired for the purpose, but finding the beche-le-mer very scarce and the natives not well disposed towards us it was determined to remove from this place and endeavour to find some better place for procuring a second cargo. Before we could get away a violent gale came on from the northward, on the 16th of Dec. and as our ship lay in an open roadstead, her situation became dangerous and beginning to drift and the reefs but a short distance astern, we let go both of our lower anchors and got our top-gall-masts down. The gale increased to such violence that our chain cable soon parted and the stream,[34] being the only anchor we had left on board, was immediately let go. That in a short time parted also and the ship drifted within a cable length of the breakers, the sea running very high at the time. Our sheet cable still held on and the gale moderating considerable we rode out the gale until the next morning when the cable parted and we drove on to the reef before sail could be made on the ship. Fortunately for us the wind shifting suddenly and blowing off shore we were able to clear the rocks without doing the ship any injury. We made all sail and after passing out to sea through the reefs we steered over towards the island of Somer-Some,[35] intending to purchase of the natives the cables and anchors of the brig _Fawn_[36] lately shipwrecked there, as we were wholly destitute of cables or anchors and it would be impossible to prosecute the voyage without a new supply. Arriving at Somer-Some, on the 19th Dec. we succeeded in procuring 3 anchors and 2 chain cables which formerly belonged to the brig _Fawn_ and also some rigging, and proceeded towards the island of Ovalou again to procure our anchors if possible and get our things from the shore.