1777' THE PACIFIC OCEAN. L 2jl 



declining to revisit the places of their birth. They 

 had arrived upon this island at least twelve years 

 ago. For I learnt from Mr. Anderson, that he 

 found they knew nothing of Captain Wallis's visit to 

 Otaheite in IJ65 ; nor of several other memorable 

 occurrences, such as the conquest of Ulietea by 

 those of Bolabola, which had preceded the arrival of 

 the Europeans. To Mr. Anderson I am also in- 

 debted for their names, Orououte, Otirreroa, and 

 Tavee ; the first, born at Matavai in Otaheite ; the 

 second, at Ulietea ; and the third, at Huaheine. 



The landing of our gentlemen on this island, 

 though they failed in the object of it, cannot but be 

 considered as a very fortunate circumstance. It has 

 proved, as we have seen, the means of bringing to 

 our knowledge a matter of fact, not only very 

 curious, but very instructive. The application of 

 the above narrative is obvious. It will serve to 

 explain, better than a thousand conjectures of 

 speculative reasoners, how the detached parts of the 

 earth, and, in particular, how the islands of the 

 South Sea, may have been first peopled ; especially 

 those that lie remote from any inhabited continent, 

 or from each other. * 



* Such accidents as this here related, probably happen fre- 

 quently in the Pacific Ocean. In 1696, two canoes, having on 

 board thirty persons of both sexes, were driven by contrary winds 

 and tempestuous weather, on the isle of Samal, one of the Phil- 

 ippines, after being tost about at sea seventy days, and having 

 performed a voyage from an island called by them Amorsot, 300 

 leagues to the east of Samal. Five of the number who had em- 

 barked, died of the hardships suffered during this extraordinary 

 passage. See a particular account of them, and of the islands 

 they belonged to, in Lettres Edifiantes and Curieuses, torn. xv. 

 from p. 196 to p. 215. In the same volume, from p. 282 to p. 

 320, we have the relation of a similar adventure, in 1721, when 

 two canoes, one containing twenty-four, and the other six persons, 

 men, women, and children, were driven from an island they called 

 Farroilep, northward to the isle of Guam, or Guahan, one of the 

 Ladrones or Mariannes. But these had not sailed so far as their 

 countrymen, who reached Samal as above, and they had been at 

 sea only twenty days. There seems to be no reason to doubt the 



