ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM VISITING THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.—BEST ARTICLES FOR TRAFFIC.—REFRESHMENTS THAT MAY BE PROCURED.—THE NUMBER OF THE ISLANDS, AND THEIR NAMES.—KEPPEL’s AND BOSCAWEN’S ISLANDS BELONG TO THEM.—ACCOUNT OF VAVAOO.—OF HAMOA.—OF FEEJEE.—VOYAGES OF THE NATIVES IN THEIR CANOES.—DIFFICULTY OF PROCURING EXACT INFORMATION.—PERSONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF BOTH SEXES.—THEIR COLOUR.—DISEASES.—THEIR GENERAL CHARACTER.—MANNER OF WEARING THEIR HAIR.—OF PUNCTURING THEIR BODIES.—THEIR CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS.—PERSONAL CLEANLINESS.

Thus we took leave of the Friendly Islands and their inhabitants, after a stay of between two and three months; during which time, we lived together in the most cordial friendship. Some accidental differences, it is true, now and then happened, owing to their great propensity to thieving; but, too often encouraged by the negligence of our own people. But these differences were never attended with any fatal consequences; to prevent which, all my measures were directed; and, I believe, few on board our ships left our friends here without some regret. The time employed amongst them was not thrown away. We expended very little of our sea provisions; subsisting in general upon the produce of the islands, while we staid; and carrying away with us a quantity of refreshments sufficient to last till our arrival at another station, where we could depend upon a fresh supply. I was not sorry, besides, to have had an opportunity of bettering the condition of these good people, by leaving the useful animals before-mentioned among them; and, at the same time, those designed for Otaheite, received fresh strength in the pastures of Tongataboo. Upon the whole, therefore, the advantages we received by touching here were very great; and I had the additional satisfaction to reflect, that they were received, without retarding one moment the prosecution of the great object of our voyage; the season for proceeding to the north being, as has been already observed, lost, before I took the resolution of bearing away for these islands.

But, besides the immediate advantages, which both the natives of the Friendly Islands, and ourselves, received by this visit, future navigators from Europe, if any such should ever tread our steps, will profit by the knowledge I acquired of the geography of this part of the Pacific Ocean; and the more philosophical reader, who loves to view human nature in new situations, and to speculate on singular, but faithful representations of the persons, the customs, the arts, the religion, the government, and the language of uncultivated man, in remote and fresh discovered quarters of the globe, will, perhaps, find matter of amusement, if not of instruction, in the information which I have been enabled to convey to him, concerning the inhabitants of this Archipelago. I shall suspend my narrative, of the progress of the voyage, while I faithfully relate what I had opportunities of collecting on these several topics.

We found by our experience, that the best articles for traffic, at these islands, are iron tools in general. Axes and hatchets; nails, from the largest spike down to tenpenny ones; rasps, files, and knives, are much sought after. Red cloth, and linen, both white and coloured; looking-glasses, and beads, are also in estimation; but of the latter, those that are blue are preferred to all others; and white ones are thought the least valuable. A string of large blue beads would, at any time, purchase a hog. But it must be observed, that such articles as are merely ornaments, may be highly esteemed at one time, and not so at another. When we first arrived at Annamooka, the people there would hardly take them in exchange even for fruit; but when Feenou came, this great man set the fashion, and brought them into vogue, till they rose in their value to what I have just mentioned.

In return for the favourite commodities which I have enumerated, all the refreshments may be procured that the islands produce. These are hogs, fowls, fish, yams, bread-fruit, plantains, cocoa-nuts, sugar-cane, and, in general, every such supply as can be met with at Otaheite, or any of the Society Islands. The yams of the Friendly Islands are excellent, and when grown to perfection, keep very well at sea. But their pork, bread-fruit, and plantains, though far from despicable, are, nevertheless, much inferior in quality to the same articles at Otaheite, and in its neighbourhood.

Good water, which ships on long voyages stand so much in need of, is scarce at these islands. It may be found, it is true, on them all; but, still, either in too inconsiderable quantities, or in situations too inconvenient to serve the purposes of navigators. However, as the islands afford plenty of provisions, and particularly of cocoa-nuts, ships may make a tolerable shift with such water as is to be got; and if one is not over nice, there will be no want. While we lay at anchor under Kotoo, on our return from Hapaee, some people from Kao informed us that there was a stream of water there, which, pouring down from the mountain, runs into the sea on the south-west side of the island; that is, on the side that faces Toofoa, another island remarkable for its height, as also for having a considerable volcano in it, which, as has been already mentioned, burnt violently all the time that we were in its neighbourhood. It may be worth while for future navigators to attend to this intelligence about the stream of water at Kao; especially as we learned that there was anchorage on that part of the coast. The black stone, of which the natives of the Friendly Islands make their hatchets and other tools, we were informed, is the production of Toofoa.

Under the denomination of Friendly Islands, we must include not only the group at Hapaee, which I visited, but also all those islands that have been discovered nearly under the same meridian to the north, as well as some others that have never been seen, hitherto, by any European navigators; but are under the dominion of Tongataboo, which, though not the largest, is the capital, and seat of government.

According to the information that we received there, this Archipelago is very extensive. Above one hundred and fifty islands were reckoned up to us by the natives, who made use of bits of leaves to ascertain their number; and Mr. Anderson, with his usual diligence, even procured all their names. Fifteen of them are said to be high or hilly, such as Toofoa and Eooa; and thirty-five of them large. Of these only three were seen this voyage; Hapaee (which is considered by the natives as one island), Tongataboo and Eooa: of the size of the unexplored thirty-two, nothing more can be mentioned, but that they must be all larger than Annamooka; with those, from whom we had our information, ranked amongst the smaller isles. Some, or indeed several, of this latter denomination, are mere spots, without inhabitants. Sixty-one of these islands have their proper places and names marked upon our chart of the Friendly Islands, and upon the sketch of the harbour of Tongataboo, to both which I refer the reader. But it must be left to future navigators to introduce into the geography of this part of the South Pacific Ocean, the exact situation and size of near a hundred more islands in this neighbourhood, which we had not an opportunity to explore, and whose existence we only learnt from the testimony of our friends, as above mentioned. On their authority the following list of them was made; and it may serve as a ground work for farther investigation.

Names of the Friendly Islands and others in that Neighbourhood, mentioned by the Inhabitants of Annamooka, Hapaee, and Tongataboo.[[196]]