The wind was fixed in the western board; that is, from the north, round by the west to south, and I steered east, and north-east, without meeting with any thing remarkable, till eleven o’clock in the morning of the 8th of August, when the land was seen, bearing north north-east, nine or ten leagues distant. At first, it appeared in detached hills, like so many separate islands; but as we drew nearer, we found that they were all connected, and belonged to one and the same island. I steered directly for it, with a fine gale at south-east by south; and at half-past six o’clock in the afternoon, it extended from north by east, to north north-east 3⁄4 east, distant three or four leagues.
The night was spent standing off and on; and, at day-break, the next morning, I steered for the north-west, or lee-side of the island; and, as we stood round its south, or south-west part, we saw it every where guarded by a reef of coral rock, extending, in some places, a full mile from the land, and a high surf breaking upon it. Some thought that they saw land to the southward of this island; but, as that was to the windward, it was left undetermined. As we drew near, we saw people on several parts of the coast, walking, or running along shore; and, in a little time, after we had reached the lee-side of the island, we saw them launch two canoes, into which above a dozen men got, and paddled toward us.
I now shortened sail, as well to give these canoes time to come up with us, as to sound for anchorage. At the distance of about half a mile from the reef, we found from forty to thirty-five fathoms’ water, over a bottom of fine sand. Nearer in, the bottom was strewed with coral rocks. The canoes having advanced to about the distance of a pistol-shot from the ship, there stopped. Omai was employed, as he usually had been on such occasions, to use all his eloquence to prevail upon the men in them to come nearer; but no intreaties could induce them to trust themselves within our reach. They kept eagerly pointing to the shore with their paddles, and calling to us to go thither; and several of their countrymen, who stood upon the beach, held up something white, which we considered also as an invitation to land. We could very well have done this, as there was good anchorage without the reef, and a break or opening in it, from whence the canoes had come out, which had no surf upon it, and where, if there was not water for the ships, there was more than sufficient for the boats. But I did not think proper to risk losing the advantage of a fair wind, for the sake of examining an island that appeared to be of little consequence. We stood in no need of refreshments, if I had been sure of meeting with them there; and having already been so unexpectedly delayed in my progress to the Society Islands, I was desirous of avoiding every possibility of farther retardment. For this reason, after making several unsuccessful attempts to induce these people to come alongside, I made sail to the north, and left them; but not without getting from them, during their vicinity to our ship, the name of their island, which they called Toobouai.
It is situated in the latitude of 22° 15ʹ south; and in 210° 37ʹ east longitude. Its greatest extent, in any direction, exclusive of the reef, is not above five or six miles. On the north-west side, the reef appears in detached pieces, between which, the sea seems to break in upon the shore. Small as the island is, there are hills in it of a considerable elevation. At the foot of the hills, is a narrow border of flat land, running quite round it, edged with a white sand beach. The hills are covered with grass, or some other herbage, except a few steep, rocky cliffs at one part, with patches of trees interspersed to their summits. But the plantations are more numerous in some of the valleys; and the flat border is quite covered with high, strong trees, whose different kinds we could not discern, except some cocoa-palms, and a few of the etoa. According to the information of the men in the canoes, their island is stocked with hogs and fowls; and produces the several fruits and roots that are found at the other islands in this part of the Pacific Ocean.
We had an opportunity, from the conversation we had with those who came off to us, of satisfying ourselves, that the inhabitants of Toobouai speak the Otaheite language; a circumstance that indubitably proves them to be of the same nation. Those of them whom we saw in the canoes, were a stout copper-coloured people, with straight black hair, which some of them wore tied in a bunch on the crown of the head, and others, flowing about the shoulders. Their faces were somewhat round and full, but the features, upon the whole, rather flat; and their countenances seemed to express some degree of natural ferocity. They had no covering but a piece of narrow stuff wrapped about the waist, and made to pass between the thighs, to cover the adjoining parts; but some of those whom we saw upon the beach, where about a hundred persons had assembled, were entirely clothed with a kind of white garment. We could observe, that some of our visitors, in the canoes, wore pearl shells, hung about the neck, as an ornament. One of them kept blowing a large conch-shell, to which a reed, near two feet long, was fixed; at first, with a continued tone of the same kind; but he, afterward, converted it into a kind of musical instrument, perpetually repeating two or three notes, with the same strength. What the blowing the conch portended, I cannot say; but I never found it the messenger of peace.
Their canoes appeared to be about thirty feet long, and two feet above the surface of the water as they floated. The forepart projected a little, and had a notch cut across, as if intended to represent the mouth of some animal. The afterpart rose with a gentle curve to the height of two or three feet, turning gradually smaller, and, as well as the upper part of the sides, was carved all over. The rest of the sides, which were perpendicular, were curiously incrusted with flat, white shells, disposed nearly in concentric semicircles, with the curve upward. One of the canoes carried seven, and the other eight, men; and they were managed with small paddles, whose blades were nearly round. Each of them had a pretty long outrigger; and they sometimes paddled with the two opposite sides together so close, that they seemed to be one boat with two outriggers; the rowers turning their faces occasionally to the stern, and pulling that way, without paddling the canoes round. When they saw us determined to leave them, they stood up in their canoes, and repeated something very loudly in concert; but we could not tell whether this was meant as a mark of their friendship or enmity. It is certain, however, that they had no weapons with them; nor could we perceive, with our glasses, that those on shore had any.
After leaving this island, from the discovery of which future navigators may possibly derive some advantage, I steered to the north, with a fresh gale at E. by S., and at day-break in the morning of the 12th, we saw the island of Maitea. Soon after, Otaheite made its appearance; and at noon it extended from S. W. by W. to W. N. W.; the point of Oheitepeha Bay bearing W., about four leagues distant. I steered for this bay, intending to anchor there, in order to draw what refreshments I could from the south-east part of the island, before I went down to Matavai; from the neighbourhood of which station I expected my principal supply. We had a fresh gale easterly, till two o’clock in the afternoon; when, being about a league from the bay, the wind suddenly died away, and was succeeded by baffling, light airs from every direction, and calms by turns. This lasted about two hours. Then we had sudden squalls, with rain, from the east. These carried us before the bay, where we got a breeze from the land, and attempted in vain to work in to gain the anchoring place. So that, at last, about nine o’clock, we were obliged to stand out, and to spend the night at sea.
When we first drew near the island, several canoes came off to the ship, each conducted by two or three men; but as they were common fellows, Omai took no particular notice of them, nor they of him. They did not even seem to perceive that he was one of their countrymen, although they conversed with him for some time. At length, a chief whom I had known before, named Ootee, and Omai’s brother-in-law, who chanced to be now at this corner of the island, and three or four more persons, all of whom knew Omai before he embarked with Captain Furneaux, came on board. Yet there was nothing either tender or striking in their meeting. On the contrary, there seemed to be a perfect indifference on both sides, till Omai, having taken his brother down into the cabin, opened the drawer where he kept his red feathers, and gave him a few. This being presently known amongst the rest of the natives upon deck, the face of affairs was entirely turned, and Ootee, who would hardly speak to Omai before, now begged that they might be tayos[[2]], and exchange names. Omai accepted of the honour, and confirmed it with a present of red feathers; and Ootee, by way of return, sent ashore for a hog. But it was evident to every one of us, that it was not the man, but his property they were in love with. Had he not shown them his treasure of red feathers, which is the commodity in greatest estimation at the island, I question much whether they would have bestowed even a cocoa-nut upon him. Such was Omai’s first reception among his countrymen. I own, I never expected it would be otherwise; but still, I was in hopes that the valuable cargo of presents with which the liberality of his friends in England had loaded him, would be the means of raising him into consequence, and of making him respected, and even courted by the first persons throughout the extent of the Society Islands. This could not but have happened, had he conducted himself with any degree of prudence; but instead of it, I am sorry to say, that he paid too little regard to the repeated advice of those who wished him well, and suffered himself to be duped by every designing knave.
From the natives who came off to us in the course of this day, we learnt that two ships had twice been in Oheitepeha Bay since my last visit to this island in 1774, and that they had left animals there, such as we had on board. But, on farther inquiry, we found they were only hogs, dogs, goats, one bull, and the male of some other animal, which, from the imperfect description now given us, we could not find out. They told us that these ships had come from a place called Reema; by which we guessed that Lima, the capital of Peru, was meant, and that these late visitors were Spaniards. We were informed, that the first time they came, they built a house and left four men behind them, viz. two priests, a boy or servant, and a fourth person called Mateema, who was much spoken of at this time; carrying away with them, when they sailed, four of the natives; that in about ten months, the same two ships returned, bringing back two of the islanders, the other two having died at Lima; and that, after a short stay, they took away their own people; but that the house which they had built was left standing.
The important news of red feathers being on board our ships, having been conveyed on shore by Omai’s friends, day had no sooner begun to break next morning, than we were surrounded by a multitude of canoes crowded with people, bringing hogs and fruit to market. At first, a quantity of feathers, not greater than what might be got from a tomtit, would purchase a hog of forty or fifty pounds’ weight. But as almost every body in the ships was possessed of some of this precious article in trade, it fell in its value above five hundred per cent. before night. However, even then, the balance was much in our favour; and red feathers continued to preserve their superiority over every other commodity. Some of the natives would not part with a hog, unless they received an axe in exchange; but nails, and beads, and other trinkets, which, during our former voyages had so great a run at this island, were now so much despised, that few would deign so much as to look at them.