About ten o’clock, I dispatched Mr Gore with three boats, two from the Resolution, and one from the Discovery, to try the experiment he had proposed.  And, as I could confide in his diligence and ability, I left it entirely to himself, to act as, from circumstances, he should judge to be most proper.  Two of the natives, who had been on board, accompanied him, and Omai went with him in his boat as an interpreter.  The ships being a full league from the island when the boats put off, and having but little wind, it was noon before we could work up to it.  We then saw our three boats riding at their grapplings, just without the surf, and a prodigious number of the natives on the shore, abreast of them.  By this we concluded, that Mr Gore, and others of our people, had landed, and our impatience to know the event may be easily conceived.  In order to observe their motions, and to be ready to give them such assistance as they might want, and our respective situations would admit of, I kept as near the shore as was prudent.  I was sensible, however, that the reef was as effectual a barrier between us and our friends who had landed, and put them as much beyond the reach of our protection, as if half the circumference of the globe had intervened.  But the islanders, it was probable, did not know this so well as we did.  Some of them, now and then, came off to the ships in their canoes, with a few cocoa nuts; which they exchanged for whatever was offered to them, without seeming to give the preference to any particular article.

These occasional visits served to lessen my solicitude about our people who had landed.  Though we could get no information from our visitors, yet their venturing on board seemed to imply, at least, that their countrymen on shore had not made an improper use of the confidence put in them.  At length, a little before sun-set, we had the satisfaction of seeing the boats put off.  When they got on board, I found that Mr Gore himself, Omai, Mr Anderson, and, Mr Burney, were the only persons who had landed.  The transactions of the day were now fully reported to me by Mr Gore; but Mr Anderson’s account of them being very particular, and including some remarks on the island and its inhabitants, I shall give it a place here, nearly in his own words.

“We rowed toward a small sandy beach, upon which, and upon the adjacent rocks, a great number of the natives had assembled; and came to an anchor within a hundred yards of the reef, which extends about as far, or a little farther, from the shore.  Several of the natives swam off, bringing cocoa-nuts; and Omai, with their countrymen, whom we had with us in the boats, made them sensible of our wish to land.  But their attention was taken up, for a little time, by the dog, which had been carried from the ship, and was just brought on shore, round whom they flocked with great eagerness.  Soon after, two canoes came off; and, to create a greater confidence in the islanders, we determined to go unarmed, and run the hazard of being treated well or ill.”