captain cook’s second voyage.

515

As they could not promife, or even fuppofe, that more Englilh (hips would be fentto thofe ifles, their faithful companion Oedidee chofe to remain in his native country.But he left the (hip with a regret fully demonftrative of the efteem he had for them.Indeed, he would have been a better fpecimen of the nation, in every refpect, thanOmai. Juft as Oedidee was going out of the (hip, he a(ked the captain, to tatou fomeparou for him, in order to (hew the commanders of other (hips which might/ftop here.He complied with his requeft, gave him a certificate of the time he had been with them,and recQmmended him to the notice of thofe who might touch at the ifland afterthem.

They did not get clear of their friends till eleven o’clock, when they weighed andput to fea •, but Oedidee did not leave them till they were almoft out of the harbour.He ftaid, in order to fire fome guns; for it being His Majefty’s birth-day, they fired thefalute at going away.

Nature is exceedingly kind to thefe illands. The natives, copying the bounty ofnature, are equally liberal, contributing plentifully and cheerfully to the wants ofnavigators. During their (lay they had plenty of pork and variety of fruit. Ail thefearticles were got in exchange for axes, hatchets, nails, chiffels, cloth, red feathers,beads, knives, fciffars, looking-glaffes, &c. articles which will ever be valuable here.Shirts are a very capital article in making prefents, efpecially with thofe who have anyconnection with the fair fex. A fhirt here is full as neceffary as a piece of gold inEngland. The ladies at Otaheite , after they had pretty well dripped their lovers offhirts, found a method of clothing themfelves with their own cloth. It was theircuftom to go on (hore every morning, and to return on board in the evening, generallyclad in rags. This furnifhed a pretence to importune the lover for better clothes; andwhen he had no more of his own, he was to drefs them in new cloth of the country,which they always left a(hore; and appearing again in rags, they mult again be clothed.So that the fame fuit might pafs through twenty different hands, and be as often fold,bought, and given away.

On the 6th, being the day after leaving Ulietea, they faw Howe Illand, difcovered byCaptain Wallis. The inhabitants of Ulietea fpeak of an uninhabited ifland, about thisfituation, called by them Mopeha, to which they go at certain feafons for turtle;perhaps this may be the fame.

On the 16th, juft after fun-rife, land was feen from the top-maft head, bearingnorth-north-eaft. They immediately altered their courfe, and (leering for it, found itto be another ifland, compofed of five or fix woody iflots, connected together by fand-banks and breakers, inclofing a lake, into which they could fee no entrance. Thecaptain looked upon it as a new difcovery, and named it Palmerfton Ifland, in honourof Lord Palmerfton, one of the lords of the Admiralty.

At four o’clock in the afternoon they left this ifle, and refumed their courfe to theWeft by fouth with a fine fteady gale eafterly.

On the 20th, they faw land; and as they drew nearer, found it to be an ifland ofconfiderable extent. Perceiving fome people on the (hore, and landing feeming to beea fy, they brought to, and hoifted out two boats, with which they put off to the lan&accompanied by fome of the officers and gentlemen.

Friendly figns were made to them, which they anfwered by menaces. All endeavoursto bring them to a parley, were to no purpofe ; for they came with the ferocity of wildboars, and threw their darts. Two or three mufquets, diicharged in the air, did nothinder one of them from advancing dill farther, and throwing another dart, or rathera fpear, which paffed clofe over the captain’s (houlder. His courage would have coft