1777- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 165 



less supposition, made by Mons. de Bougainville, 

 that they made voyages of the prodigious extent * he 

 mentions ; for I found, that it is reckoned a sort of 

 prodigy, that a canoe once driven by a storm from 

 Otaheite, should have fallen in with Mopeeha, or 

 Howe's Island, though so near, and directly to lee- 

 ward. The knowledge thev have of other distant 

 islands is no doubt traditional, and has been commu- 

 nicated to them by the natives of those islands, 

 driven accidentally upon their coasts, who besides 

 giving them the names, could easily inform them of the 

 direction in which the places lie from whence they 

 came* and of the number of days they had been upon 

 the sea. Jn this manner, it may be supposed, that 

 the natives of Wateeoo have increased their catalogue 

 by the addition of Otaheite and its neighbouring 

 isles, from the people we met with there, and also 

 of the other islands these had heard of. We may thus 

 account for that extensive knowledge attributed by 

 the gentlemen of the Endeavour t to Tupia in such 

 matters. And with all due deference to his veracity, 

 I presume that it was by the same means of inform- 

 ation, that he was able to direct the ship to Ohe- 

 teroa, without having ever been there himself^ as 

 he pretended ; which, on many accounts, is very 

 improbable. 



* See Bougainville's Voyage autour du Monde, p. 228., where 

 we are told that these people sometimes navigate at the distance of 

 more than three hundred leagues. 



f Hawkesworth's Collection, vol. ii. p. 278. 



m s 



