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Updated: June 23, 2025
To the rest of our friends we had bidden farewell the evening before. We sailed through the Schischmaref straits, and then between the Otdia and Aur groups, whence we steered directly to the group Ligiep, in order to lay down correctly its eastern coasts, for which, in my former voyage, circumstances had been unfavourable.
We weighed anchor, and endeavoured by tacking to reach Otdia; and in so doing, often came very close upon the little picturesque bright green islands which studded the sparkling lake. The fresh morning breeze wafted aromatic odours towards us; but the huts of the inhabitants stood empty and desolate. When we were near Otdia, we again descried canoes sailing as close as possible to the shore.
The jubilee that ensued exceeds all description. The whole population of Otdia and the neighbouring islands assembled round our tent, and the music acted upon them like Huon's horn in Oberon. They danced and leaped about, sometimes hurrying the sailors into similar antics, and forming altogether a scene which would have provoked the most solemn philosopher to laughter.
The cat was the only animal of those I had left at Otdia which remained there; and it was no longer of the domestic species; it had become very numerous and entirely wild, but as yet had occasioned no sensible diminution in the number of rats. It may be hoped, however, that as the cats have no other food, those voracious pests of the gardens may at length be exterminated.
Lawrence, he was obliged to give up the further prosecution of his researches. On the 1st October the Rurik made a second short halt at the Sandwich Islands where seeds and animals were landed, and at the end of the month the explorers landed at Otdia in the midst of the enthusiastic acclamations of the natives.
The inhabitants of Otdia, who had been observing us from behind the bushes, now that the well-known name resounded through the island, sprang from their concealment, giving vent to their rapture in frolic gestures, dances, and songs. Numbers hurried to the strand; others ran into the water as high as their hips, to be the first to welcome us.
I appointed Otdia, belonging to this chain of islands, for our residence, as affording the most convenient anchorage for large ships. We were so much delayed by calms, that we could not till the 19th of April reach the ninth degree of south latitude. Here we encountered gusts of wind and torrents of rain, and a current carried us daily from twenty to thirty miles westward.
They had indeed imbibed from the crew of the Rurik a favourable opinion of white people; but the ship which now approached them was a monster in comparison of it, and they were excusable in supposing it manned by another and unknown race. We now reached the group Otdia, and sailed close under the outward reef, towards the Schischmaref Strait, through which I proposed to enter the basin.
The chief or sovereign of all these islands is named Lamari: the chiefs of the particular groups are subordinate to him; and under these are the chiefs of the separate islands composing each group. The chief of the group Otdia is called Rarik. I gave his portrait in my former voyage, and was particularly pleased with him, and with another native of the same group, named Lagediak.
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