48 
OTA O T B 
ciency of food on the ifland for their fupport. The 
earees, or gentry, are a fociety fo licentious and profligate, 
as to call loudly for punifhment, even from the Divine 
power. The very principle of their union is the commu¬ 
nity of their women, and the murder, at the moment of 
their birth, of all their iflue of both fexes. By a ftrange 
and moft lamentable perverfity of mind, thefe wretches 
are venerated as a fuperior order of beings, and are 
treated as fuch wherever they go. Iam perfuaded that 
the example of thefe murderers extends this horrible 
mifchief beyond themfelves; the common people of all 
countries ufually judge, and in confequence aft, more 
from the example of their fuperiors than as guided by 
their own reafon. The common people may thus be led 
to imitate what they fee in their chiefs. I believe, 
throughout the whole ifland, it is a matter of choice, whe¬ 
ther a child fliall be brought up or.murdered. 
“To any man of humanity, nothing can be more dif- 
trefling than to calf his eye on the ifland of Otaheite, a 
fpot blefled by nature with every thing that can render 
life pleating j fertility of foil, and ferenity of climate: 
but now become a fcene of general mortality, and a prey 
to difeafe, which, to all human appearance, in a few years 
mull render it a defolate wildernefs, untrodden by human 
feet. They impute the greater part of thefe difeafes to 
their European vifltors ; but for the moll part very ab- 
furdly, though indeed we mull take our fhare. There 
can' be no doubt but that thoufands of them have been 
fwept off by the venereal difeafe iince their intercourfe 
with Europeans. 
“ Befides the diforders above mentioned, they have 
many others with which I am unacquainted, but which, 
doubtlefs, have their fhare in the deftruftion of the 
population. But the moll effeftual inllrument of 
the annihilation of thefe people, is the horrible praftice 
already noticed, that of infant murder and human facri- 
fices. It is computed that at lead two-thirds of the 
births- are thus difled. In vain does nature raife her 
voice again!! what long ufage and profligacy, confirmed 
by habit and example, has fo barbaroufly induced. If 
the future diminution of thefe people keep pace with 
that of late years, and particularly during the time of 
my abode among them, the population mull foon be ex- 
tinft.” 
Confidering the miferable Hate of this ifland, the reader 
■will no doubt be furprifed at being informed, that a ge¬ 
neral rebellion broke out in the month of November, 
1808, by which Pomaree (this l'eems to have been a ge¬ 
neral name for their kings) was driven off the ifland, and 
continued in exile at Eimeo till the very fame month in 
the year 1815. 
The miffionaries, who had precipitately fled when the 
infurreftion broke out, and repaired to New South Wales, 
now' returned to their labour of love ; and from that time 
were fo w'onderfully fuccefsful, that, in lefs than tw'o 
years, the whole of the natives had been converted. The 
following is an extraft of a letter from the Rev. John 
Davies, one of the miffionaries, to the Rev. John Hughes, 
of Montgomeryfhire, dated July 2, 1817. “ I fliall now 
give you a fliort account of the flate of things with us. 
The revival and reformation w'hich commenced in 1813- 
1814, continued, and increafedin 1815 and 1817, fo that 
the whole of the inhabitants of Otaheite, Eimeo, Tapan- 
manu, Huaheine, Raintea, Tahaa, Bolabola, and Maura, 
have.entirely renounced idolatry. The gods, altars,&c. 
are utterly deflroyed. The offering of human facrifices, 
and the praftice of infanticide, are at an end. Thewor- 
fliip of the true God, and the profeffion of Chriflianity, 
are general throughout all the above iflands. In Otaheite 
66 chapels have been built; and in Eimeo 16. The 
people affemble for worfhip thrice every Sunday, and on 
every Wednefday evening. /The Lord's day is flriftly 
obferved throughout the whole of the iflands. Private 
and family prayer is general among the people. About 
4000 perfons have learned to read, and many of them to 
write. In a word, the change far exceeds our expefta- 
tion. They have been furnifhed with a printing-prefs by 
the London Miffionary Society; and part of the Gofpels, 
tranflated into the language of the nations, is now print¬ 
ing. The culture of the fugar-cane, and other arts of 
civilization, are alfo in progrefs.” Another letter fays, 
“The king, Pomaree, has fent all his family-idols to the 
miffionaries, defiring theip either to dellroy them, or 
fend them to Europe, that the people of England may 
fee what foolijh gods they formerly worfhipped.” Mr. 
Marfden fent thefe gods, nailed up in a cafe, to England ; 
and they are now exhibited at the Mufeum of the Mif- 
llonary Society, in Jewdn-flreet, London. 
But furely there mufl have been a revival (as it is called) 
of people as well as of devotion ; for the 66 chapels, See. 
could be of little ufe, if the ifland were now in the de¬ 
plorably-depopulated condition deferibed by Turnbull. 
See Turnbull’s Voyage. Cook’s three Voyages. Mif¬ 
fionary Voyages. • State of Chriflianity in the Ifland of 
Otaheite, by a Foreign Traveller, 1811.—Otaheite lies in 
lat. 17. 30. to 17.48. S. Ion. 149. 15. to 150. o. W. Mata- 
vai Point is in lat. 17. 29^. Ion. 210. 22. 28. E. Variation 
of the compafs, from 4. 46. to 5. 34. E. Dip of the 
needle, 29. 12. 
OTAKOOTA'IA, or Weenooa-et'te, fignifying 
Little IJlaml, an ifland of the South Pacific Ocean, about 
three miles in circuit; difeovered by Captain Cook in 
the year 1777. The beach, within the reef, is compofed 
of a white coral fand; above which the land within does 
not rife above fix or feven feet, and is covered with a light 
reddifh foil, but is entirely deflitute of water. The only 
common trees found there w'ere cocoa-palms, of which 
there w'ere leveral cinders, and vafl numbers of the whana. 
A fort of bind-w'eed covers the vacant fpaces; except in 
fome places, udiere was found a confiderable quantity of 
treacle-mullard, a fpecies of fpurge, with a few otherfmall 
plants, and the Morinda citrifolia, the fruit of which is 
eaten by the natives of Otaheite in times- of fcarcity. 
The only bird feen among the trees was a beautiful cuc¬ 
koo, of a chefnut-brown variegated with black. But 
upon the (bore were fome egg-birds, a fmall fort of cur¬ 
lew, blue and white herons, and great numbers of nod¬ 
dies. Here was found a lizard, of a mod forbidding af- 
peft, though fmall, running up a tree; and many of 
another fort were feen. The banks toward the fea were 
frequented by an infinite number of a fort of moth, ele¬ 
gantly fpeckled with red, black, and white. There wefe 
alfo feveral other forts of moths, as well as fome pretty 
butterflies, and a few other infefts. Although no fixed 
inhabitants were found on this ifland, indubitable marks 
remained of its being, at lead, occafionally frequented. 
Some huts were found ; and alfo feveral large Hones, 
erefted, like monuments, under the fliade of fome trees; 
and feveral fpaces enclofed with linaller ones, w-here 
probably the dead had been buried ; and, in one place, 
a great many cockle fhells of a particular fort, finely 
grooved, and larger than the fill, were to be feen; from 
which it was reafonable toconjefture, that the ifland had 
been vifited by perfons who feed partly upon fhell-filh : 
about three or four leagues from Wateoo. Lat. 19. 15. S. 
Ion. 201. 37. E. 
OTAL'GIA, f. [from the Gr. ara, ears, and a.\yo;, 
pain.] A pain of the ear ; the ear-ach. 
OTANGU'RA, a town of Bengal; fixteen miles fouth- 
fouth-weft of Tomar. 
OTBER'TUS, or Obertus, a celebrated ecclefiadic, 
was firfl canon at St. Lambert, near Liege; but was ba- 
niflied, as is faid, by' the bifliop, on account of his mif- 
conduft. He then repaired to the court of the emperor 
Henry IV. where he was appointed to a place in the im¬ 
perial chapel ; and, the epifcopal chair becoming vacant, 
lie obtained it from the emperor, either by money or 
promifes, in the year 1091. Some writers, however, fay 
nothing of thefe reproaches; and teflify that he condufted 
himfelf in his epifcopal quality in a very laudable manner. 
Otbert 
