1774 Omai from Otabeite 125 



that Johnson was struck with the elegance of Omai's be- 

 haviour, and accounted for it thus : " Sir, he had passed 

 his time, while in England, only in the best company ; so 

 that all that he had acquired of our manners was genteel. 

 As a proof of this, Sir, Lord Mulgrave and he dined one 

 day at Streatham ; they sat with their backs to the light 

 fronting me, so that I could not see distinctly ; and there 

 was so little of the savage in Omai that I was afraid to speak 

 to either, lest I should mistake the one for the other." 

 Fanny Burney wrote that "his manners are so extremely 

 graceful and he is so polite, attentive and easy that you 

 would have thought he came from some foreign court." 

 He was painted in artistic robes by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 

 and engravings of him were in demand all over the country. 

 He dined again twice at the Club this year, the President 

 and Treasurer being in turn his sponsors. 1 



Among the English guests Benjamin Franklin was again 

 by much the most frequently seen at the Club and, as before, 

 almost always on the invitation of his close friend, the 

 President. The Marquis of Carmarthen and the Earl of 

 Seaforth dined one evening in company with Franklin, 

 Pringle, Burrow, Cavendish, Banks, Horsley and Solander. 

 Thomas Pennant was a visitor in March and April, and Colonel 

 Roy came more than once in the first half of the year. Dr. 

 Blagden too appeared in the spring and summer. Sir George 

 Shuckburgh was invited to the dinner on June 30, and he 

 was elected into the Royal Society at the close of the year. 

 Another visitor, who was also a prospective F.R.S. the 

 Rev. Sir John Cullum, sixth baronet, antiquary and vicar of 

 Great Thurlow, was elected into the Society on March 2 

 in the following year. 



1 The poet Cowper, in apostrophising Omai, seized the occasion to satirise 

 the public that made so much of him. 



Gentle savage ! whom no love of thee 

 Or thine, but curiosity, perhaps, 

 Or else vain-glory, prompted us to draw 

 Forth from thy native bowers, to show thee here 

 With what superior skill we can abuse 

 The gifts of Providence, and squander life. 



The Sofa, 633-638. 



