THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 201 



About twenty perfons in number, of both fexes, had em- -y'j- 



barlced on board a canoe at Otahcite, to crois over to the v= — . » 



neighbouring ifland Uhetea. _ A violent contrary vi^ind ari- 

 fing, they could neither reach the latter, nor get back to 

 the former. Their intended paffage being a very fhort one, 

 their flock of provifions was fcanty, and foon exhaufted. 

 The hardlhips they fufFered, while driven along by the 

 florm, they knew not whither, are not to be conceived. 

 They pafTed many days without having any thing to eat or 

 drink. Their numbers gradually diminiflaed, worn out by 

 famine and fatigue. Four men only furvived, when the 

 canoe overfet ; and then the perdition of this fmali rem- 

 nant feemed inevitable. However, they kept hanging 

 by the fide of their veffel, during fome of the laft days, 

 till Providence brought them m fight of the people of 

 this ifland, who immediately fent out canoes, took them 

 oil" their wreck, and brought them afliore. Of the four 

 who were thus faved, one was lince dead. The other three, 

 who lived to have this opportunity of giving an account of 

 their almoft miraculous tranfplantation, fpoke highly of 

 the kind treatment they here met with. And fo well fa- 

 tisfied were they with their fituation, that they refufed the 

 offer made to them by our gentlemen, at Omai's requefl, of 

 giving them a pafTage on board our fhips, to reflore them 

 to their native iflands. The fimilarity of manners and lan- 

 guage, had more than naturalized them to this fpot ; and 

 the frefh connexions which they had here formed, and 

 which it would have been painful to have broken off, after 

 fuch a length of time, fufficiently account for their de- 

 clining to revifit the places of their birth. They had ar- 

 rived upon this ifland at leaft twelve years ago. For I 

 learnt from Mr. Anderfon, that he found they knew no- 

 VoL. I. D d thing 



