186
VOYAGE IN SEARCH
[1793.
CHAP. XIII.
Departure from Tongataboo—We get Sight of the Southern Part of the Archipelago of the Tierra del Espiritu Santo, (New Hebrides)—Discovery of the Island of Beaupré—We Anchor at New Caledonia—Interviews with the Natives—Description of their Huts—These Savages are Cannibals—Their Impudence toward us—They eat great Pieces of Steatite, to appease their Hunger—Their Attempts to seize upon our Boats—Different Excursions into the Interior Part of the Island—Death of Captain Huon—New Species of Spider, on which the Savages of New Caledonia feed.
10th April.
About seven in the morning we got under way, with a pretty fresh breeze from the east-south-east, and steered for an hour from north-west by south to north, and afterward north by east, passing out through a channel toward the north of our anchoring place, which had been examined by Citizen Legrand.
In this channel we found by the lead from five fathoms and a half to nine fathoms water.
Some of the natives followed us in their ca-noes,
