Volume 14 / Part 3 / Book 2 — CHAPTER II. (continued 6)

We did not get clear of our friends till eleven o'clock, when we weighed, and put to sea; but Oedidee did not leave us till we were almost out of the harbour. He staid, in order to fire some guns; for it being his majesty's birthday, we fired the salute at going away.

When I first came to these islands, I had some thought of visiting Tupia's famous Bolabola. But as I had now got on board a plentiful supply of all manner of refreshments, and the route I had in view allowing me no time to spare, I laid this design aside, and directed my course to the west; taking our final leave of these happy isles, on which benevolent Nature has spread her luxuriant sweets with a lavish hand. The natives, copying the bounty of Nature, are equally liberal; contributing plentifully and cheerfully to the wants of navigators. During the six weeks we had remained at them, we had fresh pork, and all the fruits which were in season, in the utmost profusion; besides fish at Otaheite, and fowls at the other isles. All these articles we got in exchange for axes, hatchets, nails, chissels, cloth, red feathers, beads, knives, scissars, looking-glasses, &c. articles which will ever be valuable here. I ought not to omit shirts as a very capital article in making presents; especially with those who have any connexion with the fair sex. A shirt here is full as necessary as a piece of gold in England. The ladies at Otaheite, after they had pretty well stripped their lovers of shirts, found a method of clothing themselves with their own cloth. It was their custom to go on shore every morning, and to return on board in the evening, generally clad in rags. This furnished a pretence to importune the lover for better clothes; and when he had no more of his own, he was to dress them in new cloth of the country, which they always left ashore; and appearing again in rags, they must again be clothed. So that the same suit might pass through twenty different hands, and be as often sold, bought, and given away.

Before I finish this account of these islands, it is necessary to mention all I know concerning the government of Ulietea and Otaha. Oree, so often mentioned, is a native of Bolabola; but is possessed of Whenooas or lands at Ulietea; which I suppose he, as well as many of his countrymen, got at the conquest. He resides here as Opoony's lieutenant; seeming to be vested with regal authority, and to be the supreme magistrate in the island. Oo-oo-rou, who is the Earee by hereditary right, seems to have little more left him than the bare title, and his own Whenooa or district, in which I think he is sovereign. I have always seen Oree pay him the respect due to his rank; and he was pleased when he saw me distinguish him from others.

Otaha, so far as I can find, is upon the very same footing. Boba and Ota are the two chiefs; the latter I have not seen; Boba is a stout, well-made young man; and we were told is, after Opoony's death, to marry his daughter, by which marriage he will be vested with the same regal authority as Opoony has now; so that it should seem, though a woman may be vested with regal dignity, she cannot have regal power. I cannot find that Opoony has got any thing to himself by the conquest of these isles, any farther than providing for his nobles, who have seized on best part of the lands. He seems to have no demand on them for any of the many articles they have had from us. Oedidee has several times enumerated to me all the axes, nails, &c. which Opoony is possessed of, which hardly amount to as many as he had from me when I saw him in 1769. Old as this famous man is, he seems not to spend his last days in indolence. When we first arrived here, he was at Maurana; soon after he returned to Bolabola; and we were now told, he was gone to Tubi.

I shall conclude this account of these islands, with some observations on the watch which Mr Wales hath communicated to me. At our arrival in Matavai Bay in Otaheite, the longitude pointed out by the watch was 2° 8' 38" ½ too far to the west; that is, it had gained, since our leaving Queen Charlotte's Sound, of its then rate of going, 8' 34" 1/2. This was in about five months, or rather more, during which time it had passed through the extremes of cold and heat. It was judged that half this error arose after we left Easter Island; by which it appeared that it went better in the cold than in the hot climates.