76 A VOYAGE TOWARDS THE SOUTH POLE,
Saturday 4.
fpare, I laid this defign afide, and directed my courfe to the
Weft; taking our final leave of thefe happy ifles, on which benevolent
Nature has fpread her luxuriant fweets with a lavifh
hand. The natives, copying the bounty of Nature, are equally
liberal ; contributing plentifully and cheerfully to the wants
of navigators. During the fix weeks we had remained at
them we had frefh pork, and all the fruits which were in
feafon, in the utmoft profufion; befides filh at Otaheite, and
fowls at the other ifles. All thefe articles we got in exchange
for axes, hatchets, nails, chiflels, cloth, red feathers, beads,
knives, fciflars, looking-glafles, &c. articles which will ever
be valuable here. I ought not to omit Hurts as a very capital
article in making prefents; efpecially with thofe who
have any connexions with the fair fex. A fhirt here is full
as necefiary as a piece of gold in England. The ladies at
Otaheite, after they had pretty well ftripped' their lovers of
fhirts, found a method of clothing themfelves with their
own cloth. It was their cuftom to go on fhore every morning,
and to return on board in the evening, generally clad
in rags. This furnifhed a pretence to importune the lover
for better cloaths; and when he had no more of his own, he
was to drefs them in new cloth of the country, which they
always left afhore; and appearing again in rags, they muft
again be clothed. So that the fame fuit might pafs through
twenty different hands, and be as' often fold, bought, and
given away.
Before I finifh this account of thefe iflands, it is necefiary
to mention all I know concerning the government of Ulietea
and Otaha. Oreo, fo often mentioned, is a native of Bola-
bola; but is pofiefled of Whenooas or lands at Ulietea ; which,
I fuppofe, he, as well as many of his countrymen, got at the
conqueft.
conqueft. He refides here as Opoony’s lieutenant; feeming ‘7Uto
be veiled with regal authority, and to be the fupreme '----.----'
fnagiftrate in the ifland. Oo-oo-rou,who is the Earee by heredi- Saturd>i" 4'
tary right, feems to have little more left him than the bare
title, and his own Whenooa or diftridt, in which, I think, he is
fovereig'n. I have always feen Oreo pay him the refpcct
due to his rank; and he was pleafed when he faw me dif-
tinguifh him from others.
Otaha, fofar as I can find, is upon the very fame footing.
Boba and Ota are the two chiefs; the latter I have not feen;,
Boba is a flout,, well-made young man; and we were told,
is, after Opoony’s death, to marry his daughter, by which
marriage he will be veiled with the fame regal authority as
Opoony has now; fo that, it fhould leem, though a woman*
may be veiled with regal dignity, fhe cannot have regal
power. I cannot find that Opoony has got any- thing to
himfelf by the conqueft of thefe ifles, any farther than
providing for his nobles, who have feized on bell part of
the lands. He feems to have no demand on them for any
of the many articles they have had from us. Oedidee has
feveral times enumerated to me all the axes, nails, &c.
which Opoony is poflefied of, which hardly amount to as
many as he had from me when I faw him in 1769. Old as
this famous man is, he feems not to fpend his laft days in
indolence. When we firft arrived here, he was at Maurana;
foon after,,he returned to Bolabola; and we were now told,
he was gone to Tubi. I
I lhall conclude this account of thefe illands, with fom%
ebfervations on the watch which Mr. Wales hath communicated
to me. At our arrival in-Matavai-Bay in Otaheite,
You I. G c e the.