68 FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 



vain : at length, however, he understood me, 

 pointed with his hand to the south, saying, inga 

 eni cef cef, (yes, islands there J ; and my joy was 

 the greater, as I owed the discovery of an un- 

 known group to my knowledge of the language. 

 I now ordered the azimuth compass to be set up ; 

 all of them immediately crowded round the instru- 

 ment, which they regarded with much attention ; 

 Lagediack, in particular, could not take his eyes 

 from the magnetic needle, which turned without 

 being touched, and he repeatedly asked me, how 

 that could be ? But how could I give him an ex- 

 planation of the compass, even if he had been 

 perfectly master of my language ? how give him 

 light in a thing respecting which I myself desired 

 to be informed ? That the box was to be tm'ned 

 while the needle kept the same position, he easily 

 comprehended, as he directly discovered that the 

 needle turned to N. and S. I begged him again 

 to show me the situation of the unknown group of 

 islands; he immediately took the compass, and, 

 turning it upon the foot till the sights were 

 directed to the part required, made me un- 

 derstand that the islands lay in that direction. 

 The direction of the compass was S.W., which I 

 immediately marked down on the tables. The 

 writing was a new discovery, which excited their 

 attention as well as reflection. I tried to make 

 Lagediack understand that all we spoke was 

 written down on the tables j wrote his name down. 



