22 WALLIS—BOUGAINVILLE—COOK. 
declaration, in the name of his King. As, how- 
ever, the Tahaitians did not understand him, 
this act remained unknown to them; and, not- 
withstanding a subsequent renewal, has fallen 
into oblivion. Captain Wallis gave it the 
name of King George the Third’s Island. 
Hight months after him, the French Captain 
Bougainville visited it; and not knowing that 
Captain Wallis had been there before him, con- 
sidered himself the first discoverer, and called 
it, from the most remarkable custom of the 
natives, Nouvelle Cythére, but heard that they 
themselves called it Tahaiti, or with the article, 
O Tahaiti; and this name it has retained. 
The celebrated Englishman, Cook, stopped 
there in each of his three voyages, between the 
years 1769 and 1778. He remained much 
longer in communication with the inhabitants 
than any of his predecessors had done ; brought 
back Omai, to whom in London it had been 
attempted to give an European education, to 
his native land, and made use of the narrations 
he obtained from him during the voyage. Since 
that time, Cook and his companions, particu- 
larly the two Forsters, father and son, have 
