P- 373- On the 4th, every thing being prepared for failing, Oreo, the Chief, and
his whole family, came on board to take their laft fafiewell: this they did in the
moil- affectionate manner; and were continually importuning Captain Cook to
return; the Chief, his wife, and daughter, but efpecially the two latter,
fcarcely ever ceafed, weeping, Oreo's laft requeft was for him to return, and
when he faw he could not obtain that promife, he.alked the name of his
P- 374* Marai (burying-place). As ftrange a queftion as this was, the Captain hefitated
not a moment to tell him, Stepney, the parifh in which he lived when in
London; fo ignorant are mortals o f that event: he was made to repeat the word
feveral times over, till they could pronounce it: then, Stepney Marai no Toote was echoed through an hundred mouths at once, Mr. Forfter having been afked
the fame queftion by one of the natives aihore, returned a different, and, indeed
a more proper anfwer, (as the fate of the very perfon who occalioned the obfer-
, vation has fince confirmed) by faying, that no man who ufed the fea could fay
where he fhould be buried. All the great families of thefe iflands having burial
places of their own, which go with the eftate to the next heir, they concluded
other nations.had the fame; and wifhing to remember their vifitors (for whom
they feemed to entertain fo cordial a regard) beyond the period of their lives •
on being told they fhould fee them no more, wanted to know the exaCt fpot
where they were to mingle with -their parent duft.
P- 374- Oedidee, whom they had taken up here when they touched at this ¡Hand
during the former part of their prefent voyage,. now left them. Nothing but
the fear of never being able to return to his native country, could have torn
him from them; and he took his leave with a regret fully demonftrative of the
efteem he bore to them.
P* 375* When Captain Cook firft came to thefe iflands, he thought of viliting Bolabola,
which Tupia had reprefepted in a favourable light; but as he had now got on
board a plentiful fupply of all manner of refrelhments, and the-route he had in
view allowing him no time to fpare, he laid this defign afide, and directed his
courfe to the weft, taking his final leave of thefe happy illes, on which benevolent
nature has fpread her luxuriant fweets with a lavifh hand; and the inhabitants
of which, copying the bounty of nature, are equally liberal, contributing
plentifully and chearfully to the wants of navigators.
Having
Having left Ulietea on the 4th of June; on the 6th they fell in with Howe Vol. XI.
Iiland, difcovered by Captain Wallis in 1767, which lies in latitude 160 46' P‘
fouth, longitude 154° 8’ weft. On the 16th they difcovered another iiland in
latitude 18" 4’ fouth, longitude 163° 10' weft, to which they gave the name of P- 2*
Palmerfton Uland, in honour of Lord Palmerfton. And on the 20th, another
in latitude 19" T fouth, longitude 169"' 37’ weft, which the hoftile conduct of
the natives, on their landing, and their ferocious afpefl, occalioned their p' s"
naming Savage Ifland.
After palling feveral other iflands, they arrived on the 26th at Anamocka or P’ 9-
Rotterdam, one of the illes difcovered by Tafman in 1642. Here they procured
fome roots, fruits, and a few fowls, with fome frefh water. They found the
inhabitants very courteous and affable; but fuch great thieves,'that the principal
part of the incidents that happened during the flay of the Refolutioii,
arofe from the employment they gave her people on thefe occafions. This
iiland, which is of a triangular form, lies in latitude 20" 1 j ’ fouth, longitude p. 19.
174“ 31’ weft. The inhabitants, productions, &c. of it are the fame as thofe p. » ;
of Amfterdam, before defcribed: thefe two, with Middleburg and Pylftart r
make a group, containing about three degrees of latitude, and two of longitude*.
Captain Cook named them the Friendly Illes, or Archipelago, as the firm alliance
and friendlhip which feems to fubfift among their inhabitants, and their courteous
behaviour to llrangers, entitles them to that denomination.
Captain Cook obferved, that thefe people feem to be much affeCted with the
leprofy, or fome fcrophulous diforder: it breaks out in the face more than any ^
other part of the body: he faw feveral whofe faces were ruined by it, and their
nofes quite gone.
From the Friendly Illes they proceeded welt, and, after having paffCd- feveral
others, they arrived on the 21ft of July at the Iiland of Mallicollo, which, lies
in latitude 16" 25' fouth, longitude 167" 57’ eaft. The harbour, which is lituated
the N. E. fide of the iiland,. they named Port Sandwich. p' 37-
The