270 COOK S VOYAGE TO APRIL, 



of feigned adventures love to surprise their readers, 

 and which, when they really happen in common life, 

 deserve to be recorded for their singularity. 



It may easily be guessed with what mutual sur- 

 prise and satisfaction Omai and his countrymen 

 engaged in conversation. Their story, as related 

 by them, is an affecting one. About twenty persons 

 in number, of both sexes, had embarked on board a 

 canoe at Otaheite, to cross over to the neighbouring 

 island Ulietea. A violent contrary wind arising, 

 they could neither reach the latter, nor get back to 

 the former. Their intended passage being a very 

 short one, their stock of provisions was scanty and 

 soon exhausted ; the hardships they suffered, while 

 driven along by the storm, they knew not whither, 

 are not to be conceived; they passed many days 

 without having any thing to eat or drink ; their 

 numbers gradually diminished, worn out by famine 

 and fatigue ; four men only survived, when the canoe 

 overset, and then the perdition of this small remnant 

 seemed inevitable. However, they kept hanging by 

 the side of their vessel during some of the last days, 

 till Providence brought them in sight of the people 

 of this island, who immediately sent out canoes, 

 took them off their wreck, and brought them ashore. 

 Of the four who were thus saved, one was since 

 dead ; the other three, who lived to have this op- 

 portunity of giving an account of their almost 

 miraculous transplantation, spoke highly of the kind 

 treatment they here met with ; and so well satisfied 

 were they with their situation, that they refused the 

 offer made to them by our gentlemen, at Omai's 

 request, of giving them a passage on board our 

 ships, to restore them to their native islands. The 

 similarity of manners and language had more than 

 naturalized them to this spot ; and the fresh con- 

 nexions which thev had here formed, and which it 

 would have been painful to have broken off, after 

 such a length of time, sufficiently account for their 



