174 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. their own children. When, talking to them about fuch 
December. j n p- ances 0 f unnatural cruelty, and afking, whether the 
Chiefs or principal people were not angry, and did not pu- 
nifh them? I was told, that the Chief neither could nor 
would interfere in fuch cafes; and that every one had a 
right to do with his own child what he pleafed. 
Though the productions, the people, and the cuftoms 
and manners of all the iflands in the neighbourhood, may, 
in general, be reckoned the fame as at Otaheite, there are 
a few differences which fhould be mentioned ; as this may 
lead to an inquiry about more material ones hereafter, if 
fuch there be, of which we are now ignorant. 
With regard to the little illand Mataia, or Ofnaburgh 
Ifland, which lies twenty leagues Eaft of Otaheite, and be¬ 
longs to a Chief of that place, who gets from thence a kind 
of tribute; a different dialed! from that of Otaheite, is there 
fpoken. The men of Mataia alfo wear their hair very long; 
and, when they fight, cover their arms with a fubftance 
which is befet with fharks teeth, and their bodies with a fort 
of fhagreen, being fkin of fifhes. At the fame time, they 
are ornamented with polifhed pearl fhells, which make a 
prodigious glittering in the fun; and they have a very large 
one, that covers them before, like a fhield or breaft-plate. 
The language of Otaheite has many words, and even 
phrafes, quite unlike thofe of the iflands to the Weftward of 
it, which all agree; and this ifland is remarkable for produ¬ 
cing great quantities of that delicious fruit we called apples, 
which are found in none of the others, except Eimeo. It has 
alfo the advantage of producing an odoriferous wood, called 
eahoi , which is highly valued at the other ifles, where there 
is none; nor even in the South Eaft peninfula, or Tiaraboo, 
though joining it. Huaheine and Eimeo, again, are re¬ 
markable 
