A DESERTED VILLAGE. 



533 



and the grass having been shrivelled by the heat, — showed that, 

 miserable as they certainly were, they were acquainted with the 

 uses and abuses of fire. At last they discovered a deserted vil- 

 lage, consisting of some two dozen huts or hives, which had 



A DESERTED VILLAGE. 



apparently been the residence of a considerable tribe. They 

 gratified their curiosity by contemplating and investigating 

 these humiliating efforts of human ingenuity. 



Continuing to the eastward, Vancouver touched at New 

 Zealand, and arrived at a spot where he had been with Cook 

 eighteen years before. An inlet which Cook had been unable 

 to explore, and which he had named in consequence "Nobody 

 knows what," was explored by Vancouver and called by him 

 "Somebody knows what." Running to the north, he dis- 

 covered an island whose inhabitants spoke the language of the 

 great South Sea nation and who seemed perfectly acquainted 

 with the uses of iron, though they had little or none of that 

 metal. A Sandwich Islander, whom Vancouver had brought 

 from London as an interpreter, and who was named Towcrezoo, 

 was of very little assistance ; for he had been so long absent 

 that he now spoke English much better than his mother-tongue, 

 and spoke the latter no better than Vancouver. The island 

 appeared to go by the name of Oparo, by w T hich Vancouver 

 thought fit to distinguish it till it should be found more pro- 

 perly entitled to another. The two vessels arrived in December 

 at Tahiti, and anchored in Matavai Bay. The chronometers 



