By the respect shewn him by all the rest in the boat, we judged this man to be a king or prince.  On their approach, they sung a song which continued near a quarter of an hour, and had a very pretty tune.  When this was done, they came almost close to our vessel, and then sung another song, which was begun by the old man, and followed by all the rest in the boat.  At the end of which, they put themselves in a posture of prayer, making many bows and cringes towards us; and then one of the men in the boat, who had a very sore leg, held it up to us, as if desiring us to cure it, whence we supposed they had never seen white men before, and deemed us more than mortals.

After some time, we made signs to let them know we wanted victuals and drink, when they shook their heads as if by way of denial.  Seeing us proceeding towards the island, one of the men in the boat blew a horn, on which all the other boats made boldly towards us; and thinking they meant to board us, we fired a junket over their heads to intimidate them, at the noise of which they seemed much surprised and drew back, menacing us at a distance with their paddles, and still following.  Seeing such multitudes on the shore, and finding we could have nothing from them but by force, and besides not having anchors and cables on which we could depend, or any boat in which to land, we concluded that we could do no good here; and on examining our water, which was found sufficient for eighteen days, at a quart each man daily, we resolved to quit these islands, and trust to Providence for guiding us to some more friendly place, where we might supply our wants.  So we left these islands, naming the westermost the Island of Disappointment, because we made certain of procuring water here, but could not.

These three islands were all low, flat, and almost even with the water, yet full of trees of various sorts, all very green and flourishing; and doubtless, if we had possessed a boat, we must have found something beneficial to ourselves, perhaps useful to our country, as we might also at several other islands which we afterwards passed.  The inhabitants of most of these islands were a very large and strong-boned race of men, having long black lank hair reaching to their middles, and were all entirely naked, not so much as covering their parts of shame; and I certainly never saw such, a parcel of stout-limbed men together in all my life.  These islands, therefore, are abundantly peopled, though they were utterly averse from any communication with us, perhaps from a notion that all whites are Spaniards; and yet it is not quite clear that even the Spaniards have ever attempted to form a settlement at any of these islands.