THEPACIFICOCEAN. 177 



tlicr. In confenuence of this, the Mateevans fell upon them ; ., ''77- 

 but thefe warhke people killed three times their own num- ^- 

 ber; though with the lofs of all their party, except five. 

 Thefe hid themfelves in the woods, and took an opportu- 

 nity, when the others were burying their dead, to enter 

 Tome houfes, where, having provided themfelves with vic- 

 tuals and water, they carried them on board a canoe, in 

 which they made their efcape ; and, after pafTing Mataia, at 

 which they would not touch, at laft arrived fafc at Eimeo- 

 The Bolabolans, however, were fenfible enough that their 

 travellers had been to blame ; for a canoe from Matceva, 

 arriving fome time after at Bolabola, fo far were they from 

 retaliating upon them for the death of their countrymen, 

 that they acknowledged they had deferved their fate, and 

 treated their vifiters kindly. 



Thefe low ifles arc, doubtlefs, the fartheft navigation, 

 which thofe of Otaheite, and the Society Iflands, perform at 

 prefent. It fccms to be a groundlefs fuppofition, made by 

 Monf. de Bougainville, that they made voyages of the pro- 

 digious extent* he mentions; fori found, that it is reckoned 

 a fort of a prodigy, that a canoe, once driven by a ftorm 

 from Otaheite, fliould have fallen in with Mopecha, or 

 Howe's Ifland, though fo near, and direc^lly to leeward. The 

 knowledge they have of other diftant iflands is, no doubt, 

 traditional; and has been communicated to them by the 

 natives of thofe iflands, driven accidentally upon their coafls, 

 who, befjdes giving them the names, could eafily inform 

 them of the direcflion in which the places lie from whence 

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



* See Bougainville's Voyage antour du Monde, p. 1^%. where we are told, that thefe 

 people fometinies navigate at the diftance of m&re than three hundred leagues, 



Vol. II. A a the 



