before the Pattern fandy cove, on the North fide of the
iiland, in which two or three ihips may lie very fecurely,
by mooring head and ftern, with their anchors or moorings
fail to the rocks.
I have already defcribed the Hapaee iflands; and fhall
only add to that defcription, by mentioning, that they extend
South Weft by South, and North Eaft by North, about
nineteen miles. The North end lies in the latitude of 19°
39' South, and 33' of longitude to the'Eaft of Annamooka.
Between them, are a great many Email iflands, fand-banks,
and breakers ; fo that the fafeft way to arrive at, Hapaee, is
either by the courfe I held, or round by the North; according
to the fituation of the fhip bound thither. "Lefooga, off
which we anchored, is the moil fertile ifle of thofe that are
called Hapaee; and, consequently, is the beil inhabited.
There is anchorage along the North Weft fide of this ifland;
but it Will be neceflary to examine the ground well before
you moor. For, although the lead may bring up fine fand,
there are, neverthelefs, fome iharp coral rocks, that would
foon deilroy the cables.
They who want a more particular defcription of the
Friendly Iflands, muft have recourfe to the chart that we
conftrudted. There, every thing is delineated with as much
accuracy as circumftances would permit. Recourfe muft,
alfo, be had, to the fame chart, for the better tracing the fe-
veralftations of the (hips, and their route from the one ifland
to the other. To have fwelled my journal with a minute
account of bearings, tackings, and the like, would neither
have been entertaining nor inftrudlive.
What has been here omitted, concerning the geography
of thefe iflands, will be found in the narrative of my
t _ laft
laft voyage*. To that narrative I muft alfo referf, for ‘777-
fuch particulars concerning the inhabitants, their manners, ■
and arts, as I had obferved then, and about which I faw no
reafon to change my judgment. At prefent, I fhall confine
myfelf to fuch interefting particulars, as either were not
mentioned in that narrative, or were imperf ectly and incor-
reftly reprefented there; and to fuch as may ferve to explain
fome paflages in the foregoing account of our tranf-
adlions with the natives.
It may, indeed, be expedted, that, after fpending between
two and three months amongft them, I fhould be enabled
to clear up every difficulty, and to give a tolerably fatisfac-
tory account of their cuftoms, opinions, and inftitutions,
both civil and religious; efpecially as we had a perfon on '
board, who might be fuppofed qualified to aft the part of
an interpreter, by underftanding their language and ours.
But poor Omai was very deficient. For unlefs the objedt or
thing we wanted to inquire ^about, was actually before us,
we found it difficult to gain a tolerable knowledge of it,
from information only, without falling into a hundred
miftakes ; and to fuch miftakes Omai was more liable than
we were. For, having no curiofity, he never gave himfelf
•the trouble to make remarks for h im fe lfa n d , when he
was difpofed to explain matters to us, his ideas appeared to
be fo limited, and, perhaps, fo different from ours, that his
accounts were often fo confufed, as to perplex, inftead of
inftrudling us. Add to this, that it was very rare that we
found, amongft the natives, a perfon, who united the ability
and the inclination to .give us the information we
wanted; and, we found, that moll of them hated to be
* Cook’s Voyage, Vol.,1.- p. 211. 2x3. f Ibid. p. 213. 225.
3 C n troubled