j>02 A V O Y A G E T O 



^777- tiling of Captain Wallis's vific to Otaheite in 1765; nor of 

 feveral other memorable occurrences, fuch as the ccnqueft 

 of Ulietea by thofe of Bolabola, which had preceded the 

 arrival of the Europeans. To Mr. Anderfon I am alfo in- 

 debted for their names, Orououte, Otirreroa, and Tavee ; 

 the firft, born at Matavai in Otaheite; the fecond, at Uhetea; 

 and the third at Huaheine. 



The landing of our gentlemen on this ifland, though 

 they failed in the objedl of it, cannot but be confidered as 

 a very fortunate circumftance. It has proved, as we have 

 ieen, the means of bringing to our knowledge a matter of 

 fa(5t, not only very curious, but very inftruclive. The ap- 

 plication of the above narrative is obvious. It will ferve to 

 explain, better than a thoufand conjedtures of fpeculative 

 reafoners, how the detached parts of the earth, and, in 

 particular, how the iflands of the South Sea, may have 

 been firft; peopled; efpecially thofe that lie remote from 

 any inhabited continent, or from each other*. 



* Such accidents as this here related, probably happen frequently in the Pacific 

 Ocean. In 1696, two canoes, having on board thirty perfons of both fexes, were 

 driven, by contrary winds and tempeftuous weather, on the ifle of Samal, one of the 

 Philippines, after being toft about at fea feventy days, and having performed a voyage, 

 from an ifland called by them Amorfot, 300 leagues to the Eaft of Samal. Five of 

 the number who had embarked, died of the hardfhips fuffered during this extraordinary 

 pafiage. See a particular account of them, and of the iflands they belonged to, in 

 -Lettres Ed'ifiantcs is Curieiifes, Tom. xv. from p. 196. to p. 215. In the fame Volume, 

 from p. 282. top. 320. we have the relation of a fimilar adventure, in 1721, when two 

 canoes, one containing twenty-four, and the other fix perfons, men, women, and 

 children, were driven, ffom an ifland they called Farroilep, Northward to the ifle of 

 Guam, or Guahan, one of the Ladrones or Mariannes. But thefe had not failed {o 

 far as their countrymen, who reached Samal as above, and they had been at fea only 

 twenty days. There feems to be no reafon to doubt the general authenticity of thefe 

 two relations. The information contained in the letters of the Jefuits, about thefe 

 iflands, now known under the name of the Carolines, and difcovered to the Spaniards 

 by the arrival of the canoes at Samal and Guam, has been adopted by all our later 

 writers. See Prefuient de Brofle's Voyages aux Tcrres Jujirales, Tom. ii. from 

 p. 443. to p. 490. See alfo the Modern U'liverfal Hl/iory, 



This 



