874 
SOUTH SEA 
people, who had come to beg for my advice, and the 
remedies for the “ various ills 5> to which their u flesh is 
heir/'* 
But on examination of their complaints, I found that 
many of them had arisen from wounds that had been 
inflicted with musquet-balls ; and, to my astonishment, 
I found that these islanders, which I had been led to 
suppose from accounts both written and verbal, were in 
a state of considerable religious civilization, were at war ! 
having had three engagements within the last eighteen 
months with the natives of an island called Otaya, one 
of the same group, and in sight of Bolabola ; in the 
last engagement with whom the Bolabola men, having 
invaded Otaya, were driven off with the loss of between 
twenty and thirty killed and many wounded ; the inhabi- 
tants of the last-mentioned island having been assisted 
in their defence by the people of Huahine, and also by 
those of Ulitea. But this had not deterred them from 
the preparation of another expedition against Otaya, 
upon which they were all busily employed on our arrival, 
and which in some measure accounted for their disorderly 
and wild appearance, and also for the king’s anxiety to 
retain me among them, thinking no doubt that I should 
be very useful, to dress the wounds which his people 
were likely to receive in battle. 
One fine-looking fellow complained of the effects of a 
musket-ball, which had passed completely through his 
chest ; he had a scar in front marking the place of its 
entrance, and another behind, immediately under the 
lowest angle of the scapula or blade-bone, where it had 
