200 
A VOYAGE TO 
*77.7- callous than one, of being brought forward to bear a prin- 
v —i cipal part in its tranftuftions. The ifland, though never 
before vifited by Europeans, actually happened to have 
other ftrangers refiding in it; and it was entirely owing to 
Omai’s being one of Mr. Gore’s attendants, that this cu¬ 
rious circumftance came to our knowledge. 
Scarcely had he been landed upon the beach, when he 
found, amongft the crowd there affembled, three of his own 
countrymen, natives of the Society Iflands. At the diftance 
of about two hundred leagues from thofe iflands, an im- 
menfe, unknown ocean intervening, with fuch wretched 
fea-boats as their inhabitants are known to make ufe of, 
and fit only for a paflage where fight of land is fcarcely 
ever loft, fuch a meeting, at fuch a place, fo accidentally 
vifited by us, may well be looked upon as one of thofe un¬ 
expected fituations, with which the writers of feigned ad¬ 
ventures love to furprize their readers, and which, when 
they really happen in common life, deferve to be recorded 
for their Angularity. 
It may ealily be guefled, with what mutual furprize and 
fatisfaCtion Omai and his countrymen engaged in converfa- 
tion. Their ltory, as related by them, is an afteCting one. 
About .twenty perfons in number, of both fexes, had em¬ 
barked on board a canoe at Otaheite, to crofs over to the 
neighbouring ifland Ulietea. A violent contrary wind arif- 
ing, they could neither reach the latter, nor get back to the 
former. Their intended paflage being a very flrort one, 
their flock of provifions was fcanty, and foon exhaufted. 
The hard (hips they buffered, while driven along by the 
ftorm, they knew not whither, are not to be conceived. 
They pafled many days without having any thing to eat or 
drink. Their numbers gradually diminiflied, worn out by 
famine 
