1

to be as happy as any under heaven; and well they may, for they possess not only the necessaries, but many of the luxuries of life in the greatest profusion; and my young man told me that hogs, fowls, and fruits, are in equal plenty at Bola-bola, a thing which Tupia would never allow. To clear up this seeming contradiction, I must observe, that the one was prejudiced against, and the other in favour of, this isle.

The produce of the islands, the manners and customs of the natives, &c. having been treated at large in the narrative of my former voyage, it will be unnecessary to take notice of these subjects in this, unless where I can add new matter, or clear up any mistakes which may have been committed.

As I had some reason to believe, that amongst their religious customs, human sacrifices were sometimes considered as necessary, I went one day to a Marai in Matavai, in company with Captain Furneaux; having with us, as I had upon all other occasions, one of my men who spoke their language tolerably well, and several of the natives, one of whom appeared to be an intelligent sensible man. In the Marai was a Tupapow, on which lay a corpse and some viands; so that every thing promised success to my enquiries. I began with asking questions relating to the several objects before me, if the plantains, &c. were for the Eatua? If they sacrificed to the Eatua, hogs, dogs, fowls, &c.? To all of which he answered in the affirmative. I then asked, If they sacrificed men to the Eatua? He answered Taata eno; that is, bad men they did, first Tipperahy, or beating them till they were dead. I then asked him, If good men. were put to death in this manner? His answer was No, only Taata eno. I asked him if any Earees were? He said, they had hogs to give to the Eatua, and again repeated Taatu eno. I next asked, If Towtows, that is, servants or slaves, who had no hogs, dogs, or fowls, but yet were good men, if they were sacrificed to the Eatua? His answer was No, only bad men. I asked him several more questions, and all his answers seemed to tend to this one point, that 'men for certain crimes were condemned to be sacrificed to the gods, provided they had not wherewithal to redeem themselves. This, I think, implies, that on some occasions, human sacrifices are considered as necessary, particularly when they take such men as have, by the laws of their country,

country, forfeited their lives, and have nothing to redeem them; and such will generally be found among the lower class of people.

The man of whom I made these enquiries, as well as some others, took some pains to explain the whole of this custom to us; but we were not masters enough of their language to understand them. I have since learnt from Omai, that they offer human sacrifices to the Supreme Being. According to his account, what men shall be so sacrificed, depends on the caprice of the high priest, who, when they are assembled on any solemn occasion, retires alone into the house of God, and stays there some time. When he comes out, he informs them, that he has seen and conversed with their great God (the high priest alone having that privilege), and that he has asked for a human sacrifice, and tells them that he has desired such a person, naming a man present, whom, most probably, the priest has an antipathy against. He is immediately killed, and so falls a victim to the priest's resentment, who, no doubt (if necessary), has address enough to persuade the people that he was a bad man. If I except their funeral ceremonies, all the knowledge that has been obtained of their religion, has been from information: And as their language is but imperfectly understood, even by those who pretend to the greatest knowledge of it, very little on this head is yet known with certainty.3

The liquor which they make from the plant called Ava ava, is expressed from the root, and not from the leaves, as mentioned in the narrative of my former voyage. The manner of preparing this liquor is as simple as it is disgusting to an European. It is thus: Several people take some of the root, and chew it till it is soft and pulpy, then they spit it out into a platter or other vessel, every one into the same; when a sufficient quantity is chewed, more or less water is put to it, according as it is to be strong or weak; the juice, thus diluted, is strained through some fibrous stuff like fine shavings; after which it is fit for drinking, and this is always done immediately. It has a pepperish taste, drinks flat, and rather insipid. But, though it is intoxicating

3 The reader will be abundantly supplied with information respecting the fact of human sacrifices being used at this island, when he comes to the account of the third voyage performed by Cook.-E.

toxicating, I only saw one instance where it had that ef fect, as they generally drink it with great moderation, and but little at a time. Sometimes they chew this root in their mouths, as Europeans do tobacco, and swallow their spittle; and sometimes I have seen them eat it wholly.

At Ulietea they cultivate great quantities of this plant. At Otaheite but very little. I believe there are but few islands in this sea, that do not produce more or less of it; and the natives apply it to the same use, as appears by Le Mair's account of Horn Island, in which he speaks of the natives making a liquor from a plant in the same manner as above mentioned.

Great injustice has been done the women of Otaheite, and the Society isles, by those who have represented them, without exception, as ready to grant the last favour to any man who will come up to their price. But this is by no means the case; the favours of married women, and also the unmarried of the better sort, are as difficult to be obtained here, as in any other country whatever. Neither can the charge be understood indiscriminately of the unmarried of the lower class, for many of these admit of no such familiarities. That there are prostitutes here, as well as in other countries, is very true, perhaps more in proportion, and such were those who came on board the ships to our people, and frequented the post we had on shore. By seeing these mix indiscriminately with those of a different turn, even of the first rank, one is at first inclined to think that they are all disposed the same way, and that the only difference is in the price. But the truth is, the woman who becomes a prostitute does not seem, in their opinion, to have com→ mitted a crime of so deep a dye as to exclude her from the esteem and society of the community in general. On the whole, a stranger who visits England might, with equal justice, draw the characters of the women there, from those which he might meet with on board the ships in one of the naval ports, or in the purlieus of Covent-Garden and DruryLane. I must however allow, that they are all completely versed in the art of coquetry, and that very few of them fix any bounds to their conversation. It is therefore no wonder that they have obtained the character of libertines.

To what hath been said of the geography of these isles, in the narrative of my former voyage, I shall now only add, that we found the latitude of Oaiti-piha Bay, in Otaheite,

to

to be 17° 43′ 26′′ south, and the longitude 0° 21′ 25′′) east from Point Venus; or 149° 13′ 24′′ west from Greenwich. The difference both of latitude and longitude, between Point Venus and Oaiti-piha, is greater than I supposed it to be, when I made the circuit of the island in 1769, by two miles, and 4 miles respectively. It is therefore highly probable, that the whole island is of a greater extent than I, at that time, estimated it to be. The astronomers set up their observatory, and made their observations on Point Venus, the latitude of which they found to be 17° 29′ 13′′ south. This differs but two seconds from that which Mr Green and I found; and its longitude, viz. 149° 34′ 49′′ west, for any thing that is yet known to the contrary, is as

exact.

Mr Kendal's watch was found to be gaining on mean time S" 863 per day, which is only o" 142 less than at Queen Charlotte's Sound, consequently its error in longitude was trifling.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER II.

FROM OUR DEPARTURE FROM THE SOCIETY ISLES, TO OUR RETURN TO AND LEAVING THEM THE SECOND TIME.

SECTION I.

Passage from Ulietea to the Friendly Islands, with an Account of the Discovery of Hervey's Island, and the Incidents that happened at Middleburg.

A

FTER leaving Ulietea, as before mentioned, I steered to the west, inclining to the south, to get clear of the tracts of former navigators, and to get into the latitude of the islands of Middleburgh and Amsterdam; for I intended to run as far west as these islands, and to touch there if I found it convenient, before I hauled up for New Zealand. I generally lay-to every night, lest we might pass any land in the dark. Part of the 21st and 22d the wind blew from N.W., attended with thunder, lightning, and rain, having a large swell from S.S.E. and S., which kept up for several days, an indication that no land was near us in that direction.

On the 23d, at ten o'clock in the morning, land was seen from the top-mast head, and at noon from the deck, extending from S. by W. to S.W. by S. We hauled up for it with the wind at S.E., and found it to consist of two or three small islets, connected together by breakers like most of the low isles in the sea, lying in a triangular form, and about six leagues in circuit. They were clothed with wood, which were many cocoa-nut trees. We saw no among people, or signs of inhabitants; and had reason to think there were none. The situation of this isle, which is in the latitude of 19° 18′ S., longitude 158° 54′ W., is not very different from that assigned by Mr Dalrymple to La Dezena.

But