1777- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 429 



second voyage. It appeared to me that the Feejee 

 men, whom we now saw, were much respected here ; 

 not only, perhaps, from the power, and cruel manner 

 of their nation's going to war, but also from their in- 

 genuity. For they seem to excel the inhabitants of 

 Tongataboo in that respect, if we might judge from 

 several specimens of their skill in workmanship which 

 we saw ; such as clubs and spears, which were carved 

 in a very masterly manner ; cloth beautifully che- 

 quered ; variegated mats ; earthen pots, and some 

 other articles j all which had a cast of superiority in 

 the execution. 



I have mentioned that Feejee lies three days' sail 

 from Tongataboo, because these people have no other 

 method of measuring the distance from island to 

 island, but by expressing the time required to make 

 the voyage in one of their canoes. In order to 

 ascertain this with some precision, or, at least, to 

 form some judgment how far these canoes can sail in 

 a moderate gale, in any given time, I went on board 

 one of them when under sail, and, by several trials 

 with the log, found that she went seven knots or miles 

 in an hour, close hauled, in a gentle gale. From 

 this I judge that they will sail, on a medium, with 

 such breezes as generally blow in their sea, about 

 seven or eight miles in an hour. But the length of 

 each day is not to be reckoned at twenty-four hours. 

 For when they spoke of one day's sail, they mean no 

 more than from the morning to the evening of the 

 same day ; that is, ten or twelve hours at most. And 

 two days' sail, with them, signifies from the morning 

 of the first day to the evening of the second ; and 

 so for any other number of days. In these naviga- 

 tions the sun is their guide by day, and the stars by 

 night. When these are obscured, they have recourse 

 to the points from whence the winds and the waves 

 came upon the vessel. If, during the obscuration, 

 both the wind and the waves should shift (which, 

 within the limits of the trade-wind, seldom happens 



