134 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. How high the Bolabola men are now in estimation at Ota- 
e _ i heite, may be inferred from Monfieur de Bougainville’s an¬ 
chor having been conveyed to them. To the fame caufe we 
muft afcribe the intention of tranfporting to their ifland the 
Spanifh bull. And they had already got poffeffion of a third 
European curiolity, the male of another animal, brought 
to Otaheite by the Spaniards. We had been much puzzled, 
by the imperfect defcription of the natives, to guefs what 
this could be. But Captain Gierke’s deferters, when brought 
back from Bolabola, told me, that the animal had been 
there Shewn to them, and that it was a ram. It feldom hap¬ 
pens, but that fome good arifes out of evil; and if our two 
men had not defected, I fliould not have known this. In 
confequence of their information, at the fame time that I 
landed to meet Opoony, I carried afhore a ewe, which we 
had brought from the Cape of Good Hope; and I hope that, 
by this prefent, I have laid the foundation for a breed of 
Bleep at Bolabola. I alfo left at Ulietea, under the care of 
Oreo, an Englifli boar and fow, and two goats. So that, not 
only Otaheite, but all the neighbouring Blands, will, in a 
few years, have their race of hogs considerably improved ; 
and, probably, be flocked with all the valuable animals 
which have been transported hither by their European 
viliters. 
When once this comes to pafs, no part of the world will 
equal thefe Blands in variety and abundance of refrefli- 
ments for navigators. Indeed, even in their prefent Slate, I 
know no place that excels them. After repeated trials, in 
the courfe of feveral voyages, we find, when they are not 
diilurbed by intefline broils, but live in amity with one 
another, which has been the cafe for fome years paft, 
that their productions are in the greatest plenty ; and, 
particularly. 
