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During this visit of our voyagers to Otaheite, such a cordial friendship and confidence subsisted between them and the natives, as never once to be interrupted by any untoward accident. Our commander had made the chiefs fully sensible, that it was their interest to treat with him on fair and equitable terms, and to keep their people from plundering or stealing.
He and his companions belonged to an island in the neighbourhood of Otaheite, all the inhabitants of which, from the teaching of some missionaries, had embraced with joy the Christian faith.
Possibly the two first-named magistrates were thus honoured to induce them not to eat the third. No other advantage was gained by the step. A statute was passed in England in 1817 authorizing the trial and punishment of persons guilty of murder and other crimes in certain savage and disturbed countries, amongst which were specified New Zealand, Otaheite, and Honduras.
While the ship was in sight she steered to the west-north-west, but I considered this only as a feint; for when we were sent away "Huzza for Otaheite" was frequently heard among the mutineers. Christian the chief of the mutineers is of a respectable family in the north of England.
When these multiply, of which Captain Cook thought there was little reason to doubt, Otaheite and the Society Islands will equal, if not exceed, any country in the known world, for plenty of provisions. Cook, Pr. Clerk, Pr. On the same day, Omai took his final leave of our navigators, in doing which, he bade farewell to all the officers in a very affectionate manner.
Captain Cook continued to the last his zeal for furnishing the natives of the South Sea with useful animals. At Bolabola, where there was already a ram, which had originally been left by the Spaniards at Otaheite, he carried ashore an ewe, that had been brought from the Cape of Good Hope; and he rejoiced in the prospect of laying a foundation, by this present, for a breed of sheep in the island.
From Otaheite the Coquille proceeded to the adjacent island of Borabora, belonging to the same group, where European customs had been adopted to the same extent; and on the 9th June, steering a westerly course, made a survey in turn of the islands Salvage, Coa, Santa Cruz, Bougainville, and Bouka; finally coming to an anchor in the harbour of Praslin, on the coast of New Ireland, famous for its beautiful waterfall.
At length, as the sun rose on the 3rd May, the verdant shores and woody mountains of Otaheite came in sight. Duperrey, like preceding visitors, could not help noticing the thorough change which had been effected in the manners and practices of the natives. Not a canoe came alongside the Coquille.
Our host had picked up another friend in the course of the morning, so that, with ourselves and the doctor, he had a very respectable party. We had been but a short time sitting in that state of palpable waiting for dinner, which from St. James' to Otaheité is one and the same recognised misery, when our host propounded to us, through the doctor, the following thesis.
On the eighteenth day after we had passed the Island of Otaheite, mentioned by Captain Cook as the place from whence they brought Omai, a hurricane blew our ship at least one thousand leagues above the surface of the water, and kept it at the height till a fresh gale arising filled the sails in every part, and onwards we travelled at a prodigious rate; thus we proceeded above the clouds for six weeks.
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