432 COOK S VOYAGE TO JULY, 



geography of these islands, will be found in the nar- 

 rative of my last voyage. * To that narrative I must 

 also refer t for such particulars concerning the in- 

 habitants, their manners, and arts, as I had observed 

 then, and about which I saw no reason to change my 

 judgment. At present I shall confine myself to such 

 interesting particulars, as either were not mentioned 

 in that narrative, or were imperfectly and incorrectly 

 represented there ; and to such as may serve to ex- 

 plain some passages in the foregoing account of our 

 transactions with the natives. 



It may, indeed, be expected that, after spending 

 between two and three months amongst them, I 

 should be enabled to clear up every difficulty, and 

 to give a tolerably satisfactory account of their cus- 

 toms, opinions, and institutions, both civil and reli- 

 gious ; especially as we had a person on board, who 

 might be supposed qualified to act the part of an in- 

 terpreter, by understanding their language and ours. 

 But poor Omai was very deficient. For unless the 

 object or thing we wanted to inquire about was ac- 

 tually before us, we found it difficult to gain a toler- 

 able knowledge of it from information only, without 

 falling into a hundred mistakes ; and to such mistakes 

 Omai was more liable, than we were. For, having 

 no curiosity, he never gave himself the trouble to 

 make remarks for himself; and, when he was dis- 

 posed to explain matters to us, his ideas appeared to 

 be so limited, and, perhaps, so different from ours, 

 that his accounts were often so confused, as to 

 perplex, instead of instructing us. Add to this, that 

 it was very rare that we found, amongst the natives, a 

 person who united the ability and the inclination to 

 give us the information we wanted ; and we found 

 that most of them hated to be troubled with what 

 they probably thought idle questions. Our situation 

 at Tongataboo, where we remained the longest, was 



r 



* Vol. III. p. 218. 219. f Ibid - P- 220, &c. 



