THEPACIFICOCEAN. ii 



There being but little wind all the morninGf, it was nine '7.v- 

 o'clock before wc could get to an anchor in the bay : where > — ^- — > 

 we moored with the two bowers. Soon after we hid an- 

 chored, Cinai's fifler came on board to fee him. I was 

 happy to obferve, that, much to the honour of them both, 

 their meeting was marked with expreflions of the tendered 

 affection, eaficr to be conceived than to be dcfcribcd. 



This moving fcene having clofcd, and the fliip being pro- 

 perly moored, Omai and I went afliore. My firfl: objc(5l was 

 to pay a vifit to a man whom my friend reprefcnied as a 

 very extraordinary perfonagc indeed, for he faid, that he 

 was the god of Bolabola. Wc found him featcd under one of 

 thofe fmall awnings, which they ufually carry in their larger 

 canoes. He was an elderly man, and had lofl the ufe cf his 

 limbs ; fo that he was carried from place to place upon a hand- 

 barrow. Some called him Olla, or Orra^ which is the name of 

 the god of Bolabola ; but his own proper name was Etary. 

 Prom Omai's account of this perfon, I expedtcd to have feen 

 fome religious adoration paid to him. But, excepting fome 

 young plantain trees that lay before him, and upon the 

 awning under which he fat, I could obferve nothing by 

 which he might be diftinguiflied from their other Chiefs. 

 Omai prefentcd to him a tuft of red feathers, tied to the 

 end of a fmall flick ; but, after a little convcrfation on in- 

 different matters with this Bolabola man, his attention was 

 drawn to an old woman, the fifter of his mother. She was 

 already at his feet, and had bedewed them plentifully with 

 tears of joy. 



I left him with the old lady, in the midft of a number of 

 people, who had gathered round him, and went to take a 

 view of the houfe, faid to be built by the flrangers who had 

 lately been here. I found it ftanding at a fmall diftance 



C 2 from 



