176 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. Belides the duller of high iflands from Mataia to Mon- 
. _ rooa inclufive, the people of Otaheite are acquainted with 
a low uninhabited ill and, which they name Mopeeha, and 
feems to be Howe’s IfLand, laid down to the Welfward of 
Mourooa in our late charts of this ocean. To this the in¬ 
habitants of the mod: leeward illands fometimes go.. There 
are alfo feveral low illands, to the North Ealtward of Ota¬ 
heite, which they have fometimes vilited, but not conllant- 
ly; and are faid to he only at the diftance of two days fail 
with a fair wind. They were thus named to me: 
Mataeeva, 
Oanaa, 
f called Oannah in Dalrymple’s Letter to 
l Hawkefworth. 
Taboohoe, 
Awehee, 
Kaoora, 
Orootooa, 
Otavaoo, where are large pearls. 
The inhabitants of thefe iiles come more frequently to 
Otaheite, and the other neighbouring high illands, from 
whofe natives they differ in being of a darker colour, with 
a fiercer afpedt, and differently punctured. I was informed, 
that at Mataeeva, and others of them, it is a cultom for the 
men to give their daughters to Itrangers who arrive amonglf 
them; but the pairs mult he live nights lying near each 
other, without prefuming to proceed farther. On the lixth 
evening, the father of the young woman treats his guell 
with food, and informs his daughter, that Ihe muft, that 
night, receive him as her hulband. The Itranger, how¬ 
ever, mult not offer to exprefs the lealt dillike, though the 
bed« 
