THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
II 
during our former voyages, had fo great a run at this illand, 
were now fo much defpifed, that few would deign fo much 
as to look at them. 
There being but little wind all the morning, it was nine 
o’clock before we could get to an anchor in the bay; where 
we moored with the two bowers. Soon after we had an¬ 
chored, Omai’s lifter came on board to fee him. I was 
happy to obferve, that, much to the honour of them both, 
their meeting was marked with expreflions of the tendered: 
affedtion, eafter to be conceived than to be defcribed. 
This moving fcene having clofed, and the fhip being pro¬ 
perly moored, Omai and I w T ent alhore. My firft objedt was 
to pay a vilit to a man whom my friend reprefented as a 
very extraordinary perfonage indeed, for he faid, that he 
was the god of Bolabola. We found him feated under one 
of tliofe fmall awnings, which they ufually carry in their 
larger canoes. He was an elderly man, and had loft the ufe 
of his limbs; fo that he was carried from place to place 
upon a hand-barrow. Some called him Ol/a, or Orra , 
which is the name of the god of Bolabola; but his own 
proper name was Etary. From Omai’s account of this per- 
fon, I expedted to have feen fome religious adoration paid 
to him. But, excepting fome young plantain trees that lay 
before him, and upon the awning under which he fat, I 
could obferve nothing by which he might be diftinguilhed 
from their other Chiefs. Omai prefented to him a tuft of 
red feathers, tied to the end of a fmall ftick; but, after a 
little converfation on indifferent matters with this Bola¬ 
bola man, his attention was drawn to an old woman, the 
lifter of his mother. She was already at his feet, and had 
bedewed them plentifully with tears of joy. 
I left him with the old lady, in the midft of a number of 
C 2 people, 
1 777 * 
Auguft. 
e— v——/ 
