130 A VOYAGE TO 



^'777- no doubt, however, thar, if we had ftaycd till the next day, 



December. ^ ■' 



we fliould have been plentifully fiipplied with provifions ; 

 and, I think, the natives would feel themfelves dilap- 

 pointed, when they found that we were gone. But, as we 

 had already a very good Hock both of hogs and of fruit on 

 board, and very little of any thing left to purchafe more, I 

 could have no inducement to defer, any longer, the profe- 

 cution of our voyage. 



The harbour of Bolabola, called Oteavanooa, fituated on 

 the Wert, fide of the ifland, is one of the moft: capacious that 

 I ever met with; and though we did not enter it, it was a 

 fatisfaclion to me, that I had an opportunity of employing 

 my people to afcertain its being a very proper place for the 

 reception of fliips*. ' '' 



The high double-peaked mountain, which is in the 

 middle of the ifland, appeared to be barren on the Eaft 

 fide; but, on the Wefl fide, has trees or bufhes on its mofl 

 craggy parts. The lower grounds, all round, toward the 

 iea, are covered with cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees, like 

 the otlier iflands of this ocean ; and the many little iflots 

 tliat funound it on the infide of the reef, add both to the 

 amount of its vegetable producT;ions, and to the number of 

 its inhabitants. 



But, flill, when we confider its very fmall extent, being 

 not more than eight leagues in compafs, it is rather re- 

 markable, that its people fliould have attempted, or have 

 been able to atchieve the conqueft of Ulietea and Otaha, the 

 former of which irtands is, of itfelf, at leafl double its fize. 

 In each of my three voyages, we had heard much of the 



* Sec a chart of the ifland of Bolabola, \n Hawiefworth' s CoIhStion^ Vol. ii. p. 249. 

 Though vvc have no particular drawing of the harbour, its fituation is there diftimftly 

 fcprcfeiited. 



war 



