THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
177 
bed-fellow allotted to him fhould be ever fo difagreeable; 
for this is conlidered as an unpardonable affront, and is 
punifhed with death. Forty men of Bolabola, who, in¬ 
cited by curiofity, had roamed as far as Mataeeva in a ca¬ 
noe, were treated in this manner; one of them having in- 
cautioufly mentioned his diflike of the woman who fell to 
his lot, in the hearing of a hoy, who informed her father. 
I11 confequence of this, the Mateevans fell upon them ; 
hut thefe warlike people killed three times their own num¬ 
ber ; though with the lofs of all their party, except five. 
Thefe hid themfelves in the woods, and took an opportu¬ 
nity, when the others were burying their dead, to enter 
fome houfes, where, having provided themfelves with vic¬ 
tuals and water, they carried them on board a canoe, in 
which they made their efcape; and, after palling Mataia, 
at which they would not touch, at laid arrived fafe at Eimeo. 
The Bolabolans, however, were fenfible enough that their 
travellers had been to blame ; for a canoe from Mateeva, 
arriving fome time after at Bolabola, fo far were they from 
retaliating upon them for the death of their countrymen, 
that they acknowledged they had deferved their fate, and 
treated their vifiters kindly. 
Thefe low ifles are, doubtlefs, the farthefl navigation, 
which thofe of Otaheite, and the Society Iflands, perform 
at prefent. It feems to be a groundlefs fuppofition, made by 
Monf. de Bougainville, that they made voyages of the pro¬ 
digious extent * he mentions; for I found, that it is reckoned 
a fort of a prodigy, that a canoe, once driven by a florin 
from Otaheite, fhould have fallen in with Mopeeha, or 
Howe’s Illand, though fo near, and directly to leeward. The 
* See Bougainville’s Voyage autour du Monde , p. 228, where we are told, that thefe 
people fometimes navigate at the diftance of more than three hundred leagues. 
Vo l < II* A a knowledge 
1777. 
December. 
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