1777- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 7* 



It, however, appeared, by the date of the inscrip- 

 tion upon the cross, and by the information we re- 

 ceived from the most intelligent of the natives, that 

 two ships arrived at Oheitepeha in 1774, soon after 

 I left Matavai, which was in May, the same year. 

 They brought with them the house and live-stock 

 before mentioned. Some said, that, after landing 

 these things, and some men, they sailed in quest of 

 me, and returned in about ten days. But I have 

 some doubt of the truth of this, as they were never 

 seen, either at Huaheine, or at Ulietea. The live- 

 stock they left here, consisted of one bull, some 

 goats, hogs, and dogs, and the male of some other 

 animal ; which we afterwards found to be a ram, and, 

 at this time, was at Bolabola, whither the bull was 

 also to have been transported. 



The hogs are of a large kind ; have already greatly 

 improved the breed originally found by us upon the 

 island ; and, at the time of our late arrival, were 

 very numerous; Goats are, also, in tolerable plenty ; 

 there being hardly a chief of any note that has not 

 got some. As to the dogs that the Spaniards put 

 ashore, which are of two or three sorts, I think they 

 would have done the island a great deal more service, 

 if they had hanged them all, instead of leaving them 

 upon it. It was to one of them that my young ram 

 fell a victim. 



When these ships left the islands, four Spaniards 

 remained behind. Two were priests, one a servant, 

 and the fourth made himself very popular among the 

 natives, who distinguish him by the name of Matee- 

 ma. He seems to have been a person who had studied 

 their language ; or, at least, to have spoken it so as 

 to be understood ; and to have taken uncommon 

 pains to impress the minds of the islanders with the 

 most exalted ideas of the greatness of the Spanish 

 nation, and to make them think meanly of the Eng- 

 lish. He even went so far as to assure them, that 

 we no longer existed as an independent nation \ that 



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