[Footnote 149:  A very ingenious and satisfactory account of the cause of the surf, is to be met with in Marsden’a History of Sumatra, p. 29-32.—­D.]

We presently found that the island was inhabited, and saw several people, on a point of the land we had passed, wading to the reef, where, as they found the ship leaving them quickly, they remained.  But others, who soon appeared in different parts, followed her course; and sometimes several of them collected into small bodies, who made a shouting noise all together, nearly after the manner of the inhabitants of New Zealand.

Between seven and eight o’clock, we were at the W.N.W. part of the island, and, being near the shore, we could perceive with our glasses, that several of the natives, who appeared upon a sandy beach, were all armed with long spears and clubs, which they brandished in the air with signs of threatening, or, as some on board interpreted their attitudes, with invitations to land.  Most of them appeared naked, except having a sort of girdle, which, being brought up between the thighs, covered that part of the body.  But some of them had pieces of cloth of different colours, white, striped, or chequered, which they wore as a garment, thrown about their shoulders.  And almost all of them had a white wrapper about their heads, not much unlike a turban; or, in some instances, like a high conical cap.  We could also perceive that they were of a tawny colour, and, in general, of a middling stature, but robust, and inclining to corpulence.

At this time, a small canoe was launched in a great hurry from the further end of the beach, and a man getting into it, put off, as with a view to reach the ship.  On perceiving this, I brought-to, that we might receive the visit; but the man’s resolution failing, he soon returned toward the beach, where, after some time, another man joined him in the canoe; and then they both paddled toward us.  They stopt short, however, as if afraid to approach, until Omai, who addressed them in the Otaheite language, in some measure quieted their apprehensions.  They then came near enough, to take some beads and nails, which were tied to a piece of wood, and thrown into the canoe.  They seemed afraid to touch these things, and put the piece of wood aside without untying them.  This, however, might arise from superstition; for Omai told us, that when they saw us offering them presents, they asked something for their Eatooa, or god.  He also, perhaps improperly, put the question to them, Whether, they ever ate human flesh? which they answered in the negative, with a mixture of indignation and abhorrence.  One of them, whose name was Mourooa, being asked how he came by a scar on his forehead, told us that it was the consequence of a wound he had got in fighting with the people of an island, which lies to the north-eastward, who, sometimes came to invade them.  They afterward took hold of a rope.  Still, however, they would not venture