Feb. 

 1826. 



230 VOYAGE TO THE 



chap. W ere prepared for the occasion. To us, accustomed 

 to navigate the seas in ships of many tons burthen, 

 provided with a compass and the necessary instru- 

 ments to determine our position, a canoe with only 

 the stars for her guidance, and destined to a place 

 whose situation could be at the best but approxi- 

 mately known, appears so frail and uncertain a con- 

 veyance, that we may wonder how any persons 

 could be found sufficiently resolute to hazard the 

 undertaking. They knew, however, that similar 

 voyages had been successfully performed, not only 

 to mountainous islands to leeward, but to some that 

 were scarcely six feet above the water, and were 

 situated in the opposite direction ; and as no ill 

 omens attended the present undertaking, no unusual 

 fears were entertained. The canoes being accord- 

 ingly prepared, and duly furnished with all that was 

 considered necessary, the persons intending to pro- 

 ceed on this expedition were embarked, amounting 

 in all to a hundred and fifty souls. What was the 

 arrangement of the other two canoes is unknown to 

 us, but in Tuwarri's there were twenty-three men, 

 fifteen women, and ten children, and a supply of 

 water and provision calculated to last three weeks. 



On the day of departure all the natives assembled 

 upon the beach to take leave of our adventurers ; 

 the canoes were placed with scrupulous exactness in 

 the supposed direction which was indicated by cer- 

 tain marks upon the land, and then launched into 

 the sea amidst the good wishes and adieus of their 

 countrymen. With a fair wind and full sail they 

 glided rapidly over the space without a thought of 

 the possibility of the miseries to which they were 

 afterwards exposed. 



