To avoid repetition, I shall only remark, that they seemed more shy than our yesterday's friends; that one of them offered us a red paint for sale; and that another cheated us. The former daubed his face with some of the colour to show us its use. Since none of them were painted with it, it is probably only used in war, or on grand occasions. The cheat remained, when the darkness had driven the other islanders homewards, bargaining with us for the price of a hog: a sack was lowered to him with the required payment, and when drawn up was found to contain a dog. The rascal had made off, but we sent a bullet after him, which seemed to produce no small dismay.
On the following day, the 7th of April, having completed our observations, we took our course with a fresh trade-wind and full sails towards the north-west, in a direction where, according to the opinion of hydrographers, islands must lie.
With respect to our geographical observations on the Navigators' Islands, I must make one remark—that all the longitudes found by us differ from those of La Pérouse by from 20 to 23', and the points observed lying so many miles more easterly than he considered them. His observations were grounded on the distance of the moon, which always gives a false longitude unless there is an opportunity of seeing the moon at equal distances, right and left, from the sun. Our longitudes were fixed by good chronometers, which having been regulated at Cape Venus, could not in so short a time have made any important error.
RADACK CHAIN OF ISLANDS.