The gale kept increasing till we were reduced to our low sails; so that, on
the 18th, at seven
In the morning, I gave over plying, set the top-sails
double-reefed, bore up for, and hauled round the north end of Aurora
Island, and then stretched over for the Isle of Lepers, under close-reefed
topsails and courses, with a very hard gale at N.E.; but we had now the
advantage of a smooth sea, having the Isle of Aurora to windward. At noon
the north end of it bore N.E. 1/2 N., distant four leagues; our latitude,
found by double altitudes, and reduced to this time, was 15 deg. 1' 30" south,
longitude 168 deg. 14' east. At two o'clock p.m. we drew near the middle of the
Isle of Lepers, and tacked about two miles from land; in which situation we
had no soundings with a line of seventy fathoms. We now saw people on the
shore, and many beautiful cascades of water pouring down the neighbouring
hills. The next time we stood for this isle, we came to within half a mile
of it, where we found thirty fathoms a sandy bottom; but a mile off we
found no soundings at seventy fathoms. Here two canoes came off to us, in
one of which were three men, and in the other but one. Though we made all
the signs of friendship, we could not bring them nearer than a stone's
throw; and they made but a short stay before they retired ashore, where we
saw a great number of people assembled in parties, and armed with bows and
arrows.
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