They Made The Circuit Of The
Island, Conducted By One Of The Earees, Whose Name Was Boba, And Were
Hospitably Entertained By The People, Who Provided Them With Victuals And
Lodging.
The first night, they were entertained with a play, the second,
their repose was disturbed by the natives stealing their military chest.
This put them on making reprisals, by which means they recovered the most
of what they had lost.
Having now got on board a large supply of refreshments, I determined to put
to sea the next morning, and made the same known to the chief, who promised
to see me again before we departed. At four o'clock we began to unmoor; and
as soon as it was light, Oreo, his son, and some of his friends, came
aboard. Many canoes also came off with fruit and hogs, the latter they even
begged of us to take from them, calling out Tiyo boa atoi. - I am
your friend, take my hog, and give me an axe. But our decks. were already
so full of them, that we could hardly move, having, on board both ships,
between three and four hundred. By the increase of our stock, together with
what we had salted and consumed, I judge that we got at this island 400 or
upwards; many, indeed, were only roasters, others again weighed one hundred
pounds, or upwards, but the general run was from forty to sixty. It is not
easy to say how many we might have got, could we have found room for all
that were offered us.
The chief, and his friends, did not leave me till we were under sail, and
before he went away, pressed me much to know, if I would not return, and
when? Questions which were daily put to me by many of these islanders. My
Otaheitean youth's leaving me proved of no consequence, as many young men
of this island voluntarily offered to come away with us. I thought proper
to take on board one, who was about seventeen or eighteen years of age,
named Oedidee, a native of Bolabola, and a near relation of the great
Opoony, chief of that island. Soon after we were out of the harbour, and
had made sail, we observed a canoe following us, conducted by two men;
whereupon I brought-to, and they presently came alongside, having brought
me a present of roasted fruit and roots from Oreo. I made them a proper
return before I dismissed them, and then set sail to the west, with the
Adventure in company.
[1] "The accounts of the situation and distances of these isles, were
so various and so vague, that we could by no means depend upon them,
for we never met with any man who had visited them; however, they
served to convince us, that the natives of the Society Isles have
sometimes extended their navigation farther than its present limits,
by the knowledge they have of several adjacent countries. Tupaya
(Tupia), the famous man who embarked at Taheitee in the Endeavour, had
enumerated a much more considerable list of names, and had actually
drawn a map of their respective situations and magnitudes, of which
Lieutenant Pickersgill obligingly communicated a copy to me.
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