PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 231 



It happened, unfortunately, that the monsoon C y\f^' 

 that year* began earlier than was expected, and ^— y— ^ 

 blew with great violence ; two days were, notwith- ^i 

 standing, passed under favourable circumstances, 

 and the adventurers began to look for the high land 

 of Maitea, an island between Chain Island and Ota- 

 heite, and to anticipate the pleasures which the suc- 

 cessful termination of their voyage would afford 

 them, when their progress was delayed by a calm, 

 the precursor of a storm, which rose suddenly from 

 an unfavourable quarter, dispersed the canoes, and 

 drove them away before it. In this manner they 

 drifted for several days ; but on the return of fine 

 weather, having a fortnight's provision remaining, 

 they again resolutely sought their destination, until 

 a second gale drove them still farther back than the 

 first, and lasted so long that they became exhausted. 

 Thus many days were past ; their distance from 

 home hourly increasing ; the sea continually washing 

 over the canoe, to the great discomfiture of the 

 women and children ; and their store of provision 

 dwindled to the last extremity. A long calm, and, 

 what was to them even worse, hot dry weather, suc- 

 ceeded the tempest, and reduced them to a state of 

 the utmost distress. They described to us their 

 canoe, alone and becalmed on the ocean ; the crew, 

 perishing with thirst beneath the fierce glare of a 

 tropical sun, hanging exhausted over their paddles ; 

 children looking to their parents for support, and 

 mothers deploring their inability to afford them 

 assistance. Every means of quenching their thirst 

 were resorted to; some drank the sea water, and 



* In the South Pacific the monsoons are occasionally felt 

 throughout all the islands of Eastern Polynesia. 



