described. It seemed like one of the marvellous rencounters of fable, rather than an adventure of real life. Omai immediately obtained for his countrymen the offer of a passage to their native isles; but the kind treatment which they had received here, and the fresh connexions which they had formed, made them decline the offer.
The almost miraculous transplantation of these Tahitians affords an interesting illustration of the manner in which the detached parts of the earth, particularly the islands of the South Sea, have been first peopled. There were females as well as males in the canoe which brought them hither; and had they been driven on an uninhabited island, before the latter perished with hunger, that island would henceforth have been furnished with inhabitants. A fact like this, is better than a thousand speculative conjectures on the peopling of our globe.
The people of Wateeoo were like those of Mangeea, having their persons tattooed, and decorated with ornaments, but wearing almost no clothes. The females wore a kind of short petticoat. Their canoes were generally double; and some of them were beautifully stained with black, in squares, triangles, and other figures; excelling any thing of the kind which our navigators had yet seen.
In the evening the ships left this island, and next morning arrived at a small uninhabited island, called Wenooa-ette, about three or four leagues north of Wateeoo. Here Lieut. Gore was sent on shore with two boats, and obtained about 100 cocoa nuts for each ship, and a quantity of grass, leaves, and young branches, for the cattle. The place was found to be occasionally inhabited, and
