sbo 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. new-comers ; and as we knew that he had a&uajly left us, 
,sh} ' we were the more ready to believe there might be fome 
foundation for the ffcory of this unexpected arrival. How¬ 
ever, to gain fome farther information, I went on fhore 
with Omai, in quell of the man who, it was faid, had 
brought the firft account of this event from Annamooka. 
We found him at the houfe of Earoupa; where Omai put. 
fuch queftions to him as I thought neceflary ; and the an- 
fwers he gave, were fo clear and fatis faCtory, that I had not 
a doubt remaining. But, juft about this time, a Chief, of 
fome note, whom we well knew, arrived from Annamooka; 
and declared, that no fhip was at that ifland, nor had been, 
lince our leaving it. The propagator of the report, finding 
himfelf detected in a falfehood, inftantly withdrew, and we 
law no more of him. What end the invention of this tale 
could anfwer, was not eafy to conjecture; unlefs we fuppofe 
it to have been artfully contrived, to get us removed from 
the one illand to the other. 
Sunday 25. In my walk, on the 25th, I happened to ftep into a houfe, 
where a woman was drefling the eyes of a young child,, who 
feemed blind; the eyes being much inflamed, and a thin 
film fpread over them. The inftruments fhe ufed were two 
llender wooden probes, with which fhe had brulhed the 
eyes fo as to make them bleed. It feems worth mention¬ 
ing, that the natives of thefe iflands fhould attempt an ope¬ 
ration of this fort; though I entered the houfe too late, to 
defcribe exaCtly how this female oculift employed the 
wretched tools fhe had to work with. 
I was fortunate enough to fee a different operation going 
on in the fame houfe, of which I can give a tolerable ac¬ 
count. I found there another woman fhaving a child’s 
head, with a fhark’s tooth, ftuck into the end of a piece of 
ftick. 
