I think, scarcely an action, circumstance, or description of any kind whatever, relating to a spear, which I have not seen and recognized among these people; as their whirling motion, and whistling noise, as they fly; their quivering motion, as they stick in the ground when they fall; their meditating their aim, when they are going to throw; and their shaking them in their hand, as they go along.' On the 20th of August, Captain Cook sailed from Tanna, and employed all the remainder of the month in a farther examination of the islands around him.

He had now finished his survey of the whole Archipelago, and had gained a knowledge of it, infinitely superior to what had ever been attained before.

The northern islands of this Archipelago were first discovered in 1606, by that eminent navigator Quiros, who considered them as part of the Southern continent, which, at that time, and till very lately, was supposed to exist.

M.de Bougainville was the next person by whom they were visited, in 1768.

This gentleman, however, besides landing in the Isle of Lepers, only made the discovery, that the country was not connected, but composed of islands, which he called the Great Cyclades.