304 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
duties, and experienced from its members every 
attention which kindness and attachment could 
bestow. 
Early in 1819, circumstances rendered it desir¬ 
able for us to visit Raiatea. We were anxious, 
also, to mingle our sympathies with those of our 
companions there, in that bereavement by which 
all were so deeply affected. We had been ac¬ 
quainted with Mr. and Mrs. Orsmond before 
leaving England. We had all left our native land 
about the same period, and had spent the greater 
part of our time, since arriving in the islands, 
either at the same station or under one roof, and 
felt deeply the first breach now made by death, 
in the little circle with which we were more im¬ 
mediately connected. We therefore availed our¬ 
selves of the return of Mr. Orsmond’s boat, to 
visit the station. 
About nine o’clock in the morning, Mr. Barff 
and myself, accompanied by five natives, and 
an English sailor who had charge of the boat, 
embarked from Huahine. Though the settlements 
were about thirty miles apart, yet, as the width of 
the channel was not much more than twenty miles, 
the mountains, and coast of the opposite island, 
were distinctly seen. The wind being fair, we 
expected to reach the Raiatean shore in three or 
four hours, and to arrive at the residence of our 
friends long before the close of day. We had not, 
however, been an hour at sea, when the heavens 
began to gather blackness, and lowering clouds 
intercepted our view of the shore we had left, 
and that to which we were bound. The wind 
became unsteady and boisterous, the sea rose, not 
in long heavy billows, but in short, cross, and 
broken waves. We had no compass on board. 
