W A T 



W A T 



remove every obftacle to a future landing, they fet fire to 

 the houfes, and put nearly all the inhabitants to the fword. 

 This place was one of the vills conferred by William the 

 Conqueror on fir William Mohun, as an appendage to the 

 caftle of Dunfter. The town of Watchet is now compofed 

 of four ilreets, nioftly paved, and containing about 140 

 houfes. It was formerly a place of confiderable trade, and 

 had a very large fifliery ; but now very few velfels belong to 

 the port, and the trade is hmited to a trifling freightage of 

 coal, kelp, alabafter, and linic-ftone. In the time of queen 

 Elizabeth the harbour was cleaned out, and a pier built at 

 the expence of the Wyndham and Luttrell families, then 

 joint lords of the manor : this pier was repaired at the be- 

 ginning of the laft century, by the care of fir William Wynd- 

 ham ; and a duty granted by parliament on all goods im- 

 ported, has been applied to making good the expence of 

 further reparations. Two fairs are lield annually, and a 

 market weekly on Saturdays. The population, in the re- 

 turn of the year 181 1, was included ni that of the parifh 

 of St. Decumans, which comprehends the town of Watchet, 

 the village of Williton, (whence the hundred derives it name, ) 

 and the hamlets of Orchard, Donniford, Kentsford, and 

 Stream, and was then ftated to contain in the whole 345 

 houfes, and 1659 inhabitants. The church of this parifti, 

 which ftands on an eminence about a mile to the fouth of 

 Watchet, is a handfome ftructure, a hundred and eight feet 

 in length, and forty -eight in breadth, and confifts of a nave, 

 two fide aifles, and a chapel, with an elegant embattled 

 tower, eighty feet in height at tlie weft end : in the north 

 aifle are feveral monuments in memory of the Wyndham 

 family. — Collinfon's Hiftory and Antiquities of Somerfet- 

 fhire, 4to. 1791. 



WATCHING. See Sleep. 



WATEEOO, in Geography, an ifland in the South Pa- 

 cific Ocean, difcovered by Capt. Cook in March 1777 ; 

 lying in S. lat. 20° i' and E. long. 201° 45'; about fix 

 leagues in circumference. It is a beautiful fpot, with the 

 furface varied by hills and plains, and covered with verdure. 

 Some gentlemen who landed from Capt. Cook's company, 

 found the foil where they pafled the day to be light and 

 fandy. But farther up the country, where a different fort 

 perhaps prevails, was feen from the fhip, by the help of 

 glaffes, a reddifh caft upon the rifing grounds. There the 

 inhabitants have their houfes ; for they could perceive two 

 or three which were long and fpacious. Its produce, with 

 the addition of hogs, was the fame as that of Mangeea, 

 which they had laft vifited. (See Mangeea.) From cir- 



cumftances that are recited, it apj)ear8 that Wateeoo can be 

 of httle ufe to any (hip that wants refrefhment, unlefs in a 

 cafe of the moft abfolute necefiity. The natives, knowing now 

 the value of fome of our commodities, might be induced to 

 bring off fruits and hogs, to a (hip ftanding off and on, or 

 to boats lying off the reef. It is doubtful, however, if any 

 fre(h water could be procured : for, though fome was 

 brought in cocoa-nut fliells to the gentlemen, they were 

 told that it was at a confiderable diftance, and probably it 

 is only to be met with in fome ftagnant pool, as no running 

 flream was any where feen. The manners of thefe iflanders, 

 their method of treating ftrangers, and their general habits 

 of life, appear to be much like thofe that prevail at Ota- 

 heite, and its neighbouring ifles. Their rehgious ceremonies 

 and opinions are alfo nearly the fame. The language fpoken 

 at Wateeoo was equally well underltood bv Omai, and by 

 two New Zealanders. What its pecuharities may be, when 

 compared with the other dialefts, Capt. Cook was not able 

 to point out. The natives of this ifland fprung originally, 

 without doubt, from the fame (lock, which has fpread itfelf 

 fo wonderfully all over the immenfe extent of the South 

 fea ; though from a circumflance mentioned by Omai they 

 put in their claim to a more illuftrious estraftion ; for they 

 dignified their ifland with the appellation of " Wenooa no 

 te Eatooa," that is, a land of gods, efteeming themfelves a 

 fort of divinities, and poffefTed with the fpiritjof the Eatooa : 

 and this notion Omai informed our voyagers was entertained 

 by fome at Otaheite, and prevailed univerfally amongft the 

 inhabitants of Mataia, or Ofnaburg ifland. It appears that 

 Omai, on landing in this ifland, found three of his own 

 countrymen, natives of the Society iflands ; one born at 

 Matavai in Otaheite, another at Ulietea, and the third at 

 Huaheine. By them he was informed, that about twenty 

 perfons, of both fexes, had embarked on board a canoe at 

 Otaheite to crofs over to the neighbouring ifland Ulietea ; 

 but they were driven by a ftorm far from their courfe, and 

 having exhaufled their flock of provifions, they pafTed many 

 days without food or drink. Many of them fell viftims to 

 famine and fatigue, and four only furvived to reach this 

 ifland at the diftance of 200 leagues from their native abode,' 

 by the inhabitants of which the furvivors, clinging to their 

 canoe which was overfet, were refcued from their danger 

 and diftrefs, hofpitably received, and treated with fo 

 much kindnefs, that the three who remained, and who 

 had lived on this ifland above twelve years, had no inclina- 

 tion to return, though an opportunity now offered itfelf for 

 this purpofe. 



END OF VOL. XXXVII. 



New-Sueet-Scjaare, London. 



