424 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
number, by simply counting two instead of one. This 
is frequently practised in counting fish, bread-fruit, or 
cocoa-nuts, and is called double counting, by which all 
the above terms signify twice as large a number as is 
now affixed to them. 
In counting, they usually employ a piece of the stalk 
of the cocoa-nut leaf, putting one aside for every ten, 
and gathering them up, and putting a longer one aside, 
for every rau, or hundred. The natives of most of the 
islands, adults and children, appear remarkably fond of 
figures and calculations, and receive the elements of 
arithmetic with great facility, and seeming delight. 
They estimate the distance of places by the length of 
time it takes to travel or sail from one to the other. 
Thus, if we wished to give them an idea of the distance 
from the islands to England, we should say it was five 
months; and they would say the distance from Tahiti to 
Huahine was a night and a day, and from Huahine to 
Raiatea, from sunrise to nearly noon, &c. 
But it is now high time to return from this apparently 
long digression, which, though somewhat diffuse, has 
an immediate bearing on the arithmetical calculations, 
the astronomical knowledge, and the nautical acquire¬ 
ments of these islanders, and bring our voyage to its 
termination. 
The wind being light but fair through the night, and 
the sea pleasantly smooth, we kept on our course till the 
light of morning began to appear, and when the day broke 
had the satisfaction of beholding the island of Hua¬ 
hine at no very great distance, and immediately before 
us. We approached on the eastern side, but the wind 
being unfavourable for sailing to the settlement, we stood 
towards the shore. When we found ourselves within 
