1777- We have alfo very good authority to believe, that KeppePs
July.' ; . ,
v— ----1 and Bofcawen’s Blands, two of Captain Wallis’s difcovenes
in 1765, are comprehended in our lift ;and that they are not
only well known to t’nefe people, but are under the fame
fovereign. The following information feemed to me deci-
iive as to this.. Upon my' inquiring, one day, of Poulaho
the king, in what manner the inhabitants of Tongataboo.
had acquired the knowledge of iron, and from what quarter
they had procured a fmall iron tool, which I had feen
amongft them, when I firft vifited their iiland, during my
former voyage, he informed me, tihat they had received this
iron from an iiland, which he called Neeootabootaboo.
Carrying my inquiries further, I then defired to know, whether
he had ever been informed, from whom the people of
Neeootabootaboo had got it. I found him perfectly acquainted
with its hiftory. He faid, that one of thofe blunders fold
a club, for five nails, to a fhip which had touched there;
and that thefe five nails afterward were fent to Tongataboo.
He added, that this was the firft iron known amongft them ;
fo that, what Tafman left of that metal, muft have been
worn out, and forgot long ago. I was very particular in
my inquiries about the fi'uation, fiaie, and form of tire iiland;
exprefiing my defire to know when this ihip had touched'
there; how long ihe ftaid ; and whether any more were in
company. The leading .fails appeared to be frefh in his.,
memory. He faid, that there was but one fhip; that ihe
did not come to an anchor, but left the iiland after her
boat had been on fhore. And from many circumftances,
which he mentioned, it could not be many years fince this,
Heemjkirk's Banks. See Dairymple’s Colleition of Voyages to the South Pacific..
Ocean, Vol. ii. p. 83.; and. Campbell’s edition. Of Harris’s, Vol. i. p. 325,
had
had happened. According to his information, there are '777-
two iilands near each other, which he himfelf had been at. 1—-wl*»
The one he defcribed as high, and peaked like Kao, and he
called it Kootahee; the other, where the people of-the ihip
landed, called Neeootabootahoo, he reprefented as much
lower. He added, that the natives of both are the fame fort
of people with thofe of Tongataboo; built their canoes
in the fame manner; that their iilands had hogs and
fowls; and, in general, the fame vegetable productions.
The ihip, fo pointedly referred to, in this converfation, could
be no other than the Dolphin; the only fingle ihip from
Europe, as far as we have ever learned, that had touched,
of late years, at any iiland in this part of the Pacific Ocean,
prior to my former vifit of the Friendly Iilands *.
I But the moft confiderable iilands in this neighbourhood,
that we now heard of (and- we heard a great deal about
them), are Hamoa, Vavaoo, and Feejee. Each of thefe was
reprefented to us as larger than Tongataboo. No European,
that we know of, has, as yet, feen any one of them. Tafman,
indeed, lays down in his chart, an ifland nearly in
'the fituation where I fuppofe Vavaoo to b e; that is, about
the latitude of 19° f,. But, then, that iiland is there marked
as
* See, Captain Wallis’s Voyage, in Hawkefwacth’s Colleflion, Vol. i. p. 492—
494. Captain Wallis there calk both thefe' iilands high ones. But the fuperiar
height of one of them may be inferred, from his faying, that it appears like a fugar-
haf. This ftrongly marks its refemblance to Kao. From.comparing Poidabo’s intelligence
to Captain Cook, with Captain Wallis’s account, it feems to be pa-tt, all
doubt, that Bofcawcn’s Iiland is our Kootahee, and Keppel’s Uland our Neeootabootaboo.
The laft is one of the large iilands marked in the foregoing Till. The
reader, who has been already apprized" of the variations of our people in writing "
down what the natives pronounced, will hardly doubt that Kottejeea and Kootahee are
the fame.
t Neither Dalrymple nor Campbell, in.-their accounts of Tafman’s voyage, take
any particular notice of his having feen .fuch an iiland. The chart here referred to,
. 3 B 2 by