164 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, had clothing sufficient for the climate, and were in every respect stout 
and healthy ; there was therefore no immediate necessity for removing 
Feb. them, though I offered to take them as far as the next island, which 
was larger and inhabited, and where — concluding, from what we saw, 
that these people were auxiliary missionaries — they would have an op- 
portunity of prosecuting their pious intentions in the conversion of the 
natives. This proposal, however, after a little consultation, was declined, 
from an apprehension of being killed and eaten, as they supposed the 
greater part of the inhabitants of the eastern islands of Polynesia to be 
cannibals. 
We very soon discovered that our little colony were Christians: 
they took an early opportunity of convincing us of this, and that they 
had both Testaments, hymn-books, &c. printed in the Otaheitan lan- 
guage : they also showed us a black-lead pencil, and other materials 
for writing. Some of the girls repeated hymns, and the greater part 
evinced a reverence and respect for the sacred books, which reflects 
much credit upon the missionaries, under whose care we could no 
longer doubt they had at one time been, 
Tuwarri, to whom I offered a passage, we found was not the 
principal person on the island, but that their chief was a man who 
accompanied him in the boat, with his legs dreadfully enlarged with 
the elephantiasis : it was he who directed their course, rebuilt their 
canoe after it had been stranded, and who appeared also to be their 
protector, being the only one who possessed fire-arms. His import- 
ance in this respect was, however, a little diminished by the want of 
powder and shot, and by an accident which had deprived him of the 
hammer of his gun — a misfortune he particularly regretted, as it had 
been given him by King Pomarree. His anxiety on this head was 
relieved by finding our armourer could supply the defect, and that we 
could furnish him with the necessary materials for the defence of his 
party. 
The canoe in which this extraordinary voyage had been made was 
found hauled up at a different part of the island from that on which 
we landed, and placed under a shed very neatly built, with the repairs 
executed in a workmanlike manner, and in every respect ready for sea. 
