1777. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 419 



of these good people, by leaving the useful animals 

 before-mentioned among them ; and, at the same 

 time, those designed for Otaheite, received fresh 

 strength in the pastures of Tongataboo. Upon 

 the whole, therefore, the advantages we received 

 by touching here were very great ; and I had the 

 additional satisfaction to reflect, that they were 

 received, without retarding one moment the pro- 

 secution of the great object of our voyage ; the 

 season for proceeding to the north being, as has 

 been already observed, lost, before I took the re- 

 solution of bearing away for these islands. 



But, besides the immediate advantages, which 

 both the natives of the Friendly Islands, and our- 

 selves, received by this visit, future navigators from 

 Europe, if any such should ever tread our steps, 

 will profit by the knowledge I acquired of the geo- 

 graphy of this part of the Pacific Ocean ; and the 

 more philosophical reader, who loves to view human 

 nature in new situations, and to speculate on sin- 

 gular, but faithful representations of the persons, 

 the customs, the arts, the religion, the government, 

 and the language of uncultivated man, in remote 

 and fresh discovered quarters of the globe, will, 

 perhaps, find matter of amusement, if not of in- 

 struction, in the information which I have been 

 enabled to convey to him, concerning the inhabitants 

 of this Archipelago. I shall suspend my narrative, 

 of the progress of the voyage, while I faithfully 

 relate what I had opportunities of collecting on 

 these several topics. 



We found by our experience, that the best ar- 

 ticles for traffic, at these islands, are iron tools in 

 general. Axes and hatchets ; nails, from the largest 

 spike down to tenpenny ones ; rasps, files, and 

 knives, are much sought after. Red cloth, and 

 linen, both white and coloured ; looking-glasses, 

 and beads, are also in estimation ; but of the latter, 

 those that are blue are preferred to all others $ 



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