I own I cannot avoid expressing it as my real opinion, that it would have been far better for these poor people, never to have known our superiority in the accommodations and arts that make life comfortable, than, after once knowing it, to be again left and abandoned to their original incapacity of improvement. Indeed, they cannot be restored to that happy mediocrity in which they lived before we discovered them, if the intercourse between us should be discontinued. It seems to me that it has become in a manner incumbent on the Europeans to visit them once in three or four years, in order to supply them with those conveniences which we have introduced among them, and have given them a predilection for. The want of such occasional supplies will probably be felt very heavily by them, when it may be too late to go back to their old less perfect contrivances, which they now despise, and have discontinued since the introduction of ours. For by the time that the iron tools, of which they are now possessed, are worn out, they will have almost lost the knowledge of their own. A stone-hatchet is, at present, as rare a thing amongst them, as an iron one was eight years ago; and a chisel of bone or stone is not to be seen. Spike-nails have supplied the place of these last, and they are weak enough to fancy that they have got an inexhaustible store of them; for these were not now at all sought after. Sometimes, however, nails much smaller than a spike would still be taken in exchange for fruit. Knives happened, at present, to be in great esteem at Ulietea, and axes and hatchets remained unrivalled by any other of our commodities at all the islands. With respect to articles of mere ornament, these people are as changeable as any of the polished nations of Europe; so that what pleases their fancy, while a fashion is in vogue, may be rejected, when another whim has supplanted it. But our iron tools are so strikingly useful, that they will, we may confidently pronounce, continue to prize them highly; and be completely miserable, if, neither possessing the materials, nor trained up to the art of fabricating them, they should cease to receive supplies of what may now be considered as having become necessary to their comfortable existence.[3]
Otaheite, though not comprehended in the number of what we have called the Society Islands, being inhabited by the same race of men, agreeing in the same leading features of character and manners, it was fortunate, that we happened to discover this principal island before the others; as the friendly and hospitable reception we there met with, of course, led us to make it the principal place of resort, in our successive visits to this part of the Pacific Ocean. By the frequency of this intercourse, we have had better opportunities of knowing something about it and its inhabitants, than about the other similar but less considerable islands in its vicinity. Of these, however, we have seen enough to satisfy us, that all that we observed and have related of Otaheite, may, with trifling variations, be applied to them.
Too much seems to have been already known and published in our former relations, about some of the modes of life that made Otaheite so agreeable an abode to many on board our ships; and, if I could now add any finishing strokes to a picture, the outlines of which have been already drawn with sufficient accuracy, I should still have hesitated to make this journal the place for exhibiting a view of licentious manners, which could only serve to disgust those for whose information I write. There are, however, many parts of the domestic, political, and religious institutions of these people, which, after all our visits to them, are but imperfectly understood. The foregoing narrative of the incidents that happened during our stay, will probably be thought to throw some additional light; and, for farther satisfaction, I refer to Mr Anderson's remarks.
Amidst our various subordinate employments, while at these islands, the great objects of our duty were always attended to. No opportunity was lost of making astronomical and nautical observations; from which the following table was drawn up:
| Place. | Latitude. | Longitude. | Variation of | Dip of the |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South. | East | the Compass. | Needle. | |
| Matavai Point, Otaheite, | 17° 24-1/4' | 210° 22' 28" | 5° 34' East | 29° 12' |
| Owharre Harbour, Huaheine, | 16° 42-3/4' | 208° 52' 24" | 5° 13-1/2" East | 28° 28' |
| Ohamaneno Harbour, Ulietea, | 16° 45-1/2' | 208° 25' 22" | 6° 19' East | 29° 5' |
[Transcriber's Note: It is possible that the compass variation at Owharre Harbour should read 5° 13-1/2' not 5° 13-1/2" (minutes not seconds)]
The longitude of the three several places is deduced from the mean of 145 sets of observations made on shore; some at one place, and some at another; and carried on to each of the stations by the time-keeper. As the situation of these places was very accurately settled, during my former voyages, the above observations were now made chiefly with a view of determining how far a number of lunar observations might be depended upon, and how near they would agree with those made upon the same spot in 1769, which fixed Matavai Point to be in 210° 27' 30". The difference, it appears, is only of 5' 2"; and, perhaps, no other method could have produced a more perfect agreement. Without pretending to say which of the two computations is the nearest the truth, the longitude of 210° 22' 28", or, which is the same thing, 208° 25' 22", will be the longitude we shall reckon from with the time-keeper, allowing it to be losing, on mean time, 1,"69 each day, as found by the mean of all the observations made at these islands for that purpose.
On our arrival at Otaheite, the error of the time-keeper in longitude was,
| by | Greenwich rate, | 1° 18' 58" |
| Tongataboo rate, | 0° 16' 40" |
Some observations were also made on the tide; particularly at Otaheite and Ulietea, with a view of ascertaining its greatest rise at the first place. When we were there, in my second voyage, Mr Wales thought he had discovered that it rose higher than I had observed it to do, when I first visited Otaheite, in 1769. But the observations we now made proved that it did not; that is, that it never rose higher than twelve or fourteen inches at most. And it was observed to be high-water nearly at noon, as well at the quadratures, as at the full and change of the moon.