The Interior Parts Are But Little Cultivated, Though Very
Fit For Cultivation.
However, the want of it added greatly to the beauty of
the isle; for here are, agreeably dispersed, groves
Of cocoa-nut and other
trees, lawns covered with thick grass, here and there plantations, and
paths leading to every part of the island, in such beautiful disorder, as
greatly enlivens the prospect.[2]
The anchorage, which I named English Road, being the first who anchored
there, is on the N.W. side, in latitude 21 deg. 20' 30" south. The bank is a
coarse sand; it extends two miles from the land, and on it there is from
twenty to forty fathoms water. The small creek before it affords convenient
landing for boats at all times of the tide; which here, as well as at the
other islands, rises about four or five feet, and is high water on the full
and change days about seven o'clock. The island of Tongatabu is shaped
something like an isosceles triangle, the longest sides whereof are seven
leagues each, and the shortest four. It lies nearly in the direction of
E.S.E. and W.N.W.; is nearly all of an equal height, rather low, not
exceeding sixty or eighty feet above the level of the sea. This island, and
also that of Eaoowee, is guarded from the sea by a reef of coral rocks,
extending out from the shore one hundred fathoms more or less. On this reef
the force of the sea is spent before it reaches the land or shore.
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