A VOYAGE TO 
178 
I 777 - knowledge they have of other diftant illands is, no doubt, 
^ ecemoer.^ trac ptional; and has been communicated to them by the na¬ 
tives of thofe illands, driven accidentally upon their coafts, 
who, befides giving them the names, could ealily inform 
them of the direction in which the places lie from whence 
they came, and of the number of days they had been upon 
the fea, I11 this manner, it may be fuppofed, that the na¬ 
tives of Wateeoo have increafed their catalogue by the 
addition of Otaheite and its neighbouring ides, from the 
people we met with there, and alfo of the other idands 
thefe had heard of. We may thus account for that exten¬ 
sive knowledge attributed, by the gentlemen of the En¬ 
deavour *, to Tupia, in fuch matters. And, with all due 
deference to his veracity, I prefume that it was, by the fame 
means of information, that he was able to diredt the Ihip 
to Oheteroa, without having ever been there himfelf, as 
he pretended; which, on many accounts, is very impro¬ 
bable.” 
* Hawkefworth’s Collection, Vol. ii. p. 278, 
CHAP. 
