During the time these canoes were near the vessel, the beach on the island was covered with natives; and on the south point of the island, a man stood alone, with a long pole in his hand, which had something large at the end of it, and which he seemed to use as a signal to those in the canoes.  These canoes appeared to be made out of a large tree, and were well shaped, with a hook made of wood at each end, the use of which we could not possibly guess:  the largest of them appeared to be about 28 feet long.  Each canoe had a long out-rigger, to prevent them from oversetting.

The natives who were in the canoes, were the stoutest and healthiest looking men I ever beheld; their skin was perfectly smooth and free from any disorder:  they were quite naked, and of a copper colour; their hair resembled that of the New-Hollanders.  Some of their beards reached as low as the navel, and there was an appearance of much art being used in forming them into long ringlets; so that it should seem as if the prevailing fashion on this island was that of keeping the beard well combed, curled, and oiled.  Two or three of the men had something like a bead or bone suspended to a string, which was fastened round the neck.  The size and very healthy appearance of these people excited our admiration very much; indeed it is wonderful how so small a spot of ground can support the vast number of inhabitants we saw on the island, all of whom appeared equally strong and handsome as those who were in the canoes.

The island cannot be more than two miles in circumference:  it is low, but entirely covered with trees, many of which are the cocoa-nut; we likewise saw a number of large trees which bore a very fine red blossom, but the red was so very conspicuous, that I am inclined to think the leaves were of that colour.  These trees reached to the margin of a very fine sandy beach, which entirely surrounds the island; a great number of canoes were lying on the beach, and, from the number of natives we saw there, besides what were in the canoes, there cannot be less than a thousand inhabitants on the island.  Lieutenant Ball named this place Tench’s Island, after Captain Watkin Tench of the marines:  it is situated in 1 deg. 39’ south latitude, and 150 deg. 31’ east longitude.

After lying-to near an hour, and finding we could have no farther intercourse with the natives, without considerable loss of time, we bore up and kept on our course, steering west by north.  At sun-set, we saw another island bearing west by north, Tench’s Island bearing east half north.  The next morning at day-light, the island seen the preceding evening, bore from south by west, to west by south, about three leagues distant; on this, we altered our course, in order to run along the shore.  This island is pretty high, and appears to be about 70 miles in circumference, if I may judge from the length of its east side, which I measured by angles.  It is well wooded, and there were a number of clear cultivated tracts of ground, on which something was growing that had the appearance of Indian corn, or sugar-cane.