270 FISHER’S ISLAND. 
among the South Sea Islanders fishing is no 
miserable drudgery of the lowest classes, but 
the pride and pleasure of the most distinguished, 
as hunting is with us. Tameamea, the mighty 
King of the Sandwich Islands, was a very clever 
fisherman, and as great an enthusiast in the 
sport as any of our European princes in the stag 
chase. As soon as the increasing darkness veiled 
the land from our sight, our visitors departed, 
and we could hear their regular measured song 
long after they were lost from view. 
The little island they inhabit not being 
marked on any map, it is probably a new dis- 
covery. By what name the natives called it I 
could not learn ; and therefore, to distinguish it 
from three other small islands lying to the north, 
mentiened by La Pérouse, I gave it the name 
of Fisher’s Island. It rises almost perpendicu- 
larly from the sea to a considerable height, and 
is overgrown with thick wood. 
On the following day we sailed with a brisk 
wind to the island of Olajava, for the purpose of 
surveying the coast. A number of canoes put 
off from the land, but could not overtake the 
ship’; and I would not lie to, on account of the 
hinderance it occasioned to our work. In the 
