1777* THE PACIFIC OCEAN. ?3 



at Otaheite ; which, grateful as I am for repeated 

 good offices, 1 hope will never happen. Our occa- 

 sional visits may, in some respects, have benefited its 

 inhabitants; but a permanent establishment amongst 

 them, conducted as most European establishments 

 amongst Indian nations have unfortunately been, 

 would, I fear, give them just cause to lament, that 

 our ships had ever found them out. Indeed, it is 

 very unlikely, that any measure of this kind should 

 ever be seriously thought of, as it can neither serve 

 the purposes of public ambition, nor of private ava- 

 rice ; and, without such inducements, I may pro- 

 nounce, that it will never be undertaken. 



I have already mentioned the visit that I had from 

 one of the two natives of this island, who had been 

 carried by the Spaniards to Lima. I never saw him af- 

 terward ; which I rather wondered at, as I had received 

 him with uncommon civility. I believe, however, 

 that Omai had kept him at a distance from me, by 

 some rough usage ; jealous that there should be an- 

 other traveller upon the island who might vie with 

 himself. Our touching at Teneriffe was a fortunate 

 circumstance for Omai ; as he prided himself in 

 having visited a place belonging to Spain, as well as 

 this man. I did not meet with the other, who had 

 returned from Lima; but Captain Gierke, who had 

 seen him, spoke of him as a low fellow, and as a little 

 out of his senses. His own countrymen, I found, 

 agreed in the same account of him. In short, these 

 two adventurers seemed to be held in no esteem. 

 They had not, indeed, been so fortunate as to re- 

 turn home with such valuable acquisitions of property 

 as we had bestowed upon Omai ; and with the ad- 

 vantages he reaped from his voyage to England, it 

 must be his own fault if he should sink into the same 

 state of insignificance. 



