Note 113 — PART the SECOND. (continued 2)

Tobia, the man who went away from Otahitee, on board the Endeavour, according to the published Journal of a Voyage round the World, gave our circumnavigators accounts of many more islands in these seas, some of which were really found by our people; but many more were known only from his narrative of an expedition of these islanders to the west. As the number of these isles seems to be so considerable, it would certainly deserve another expedition to discover them all; and though at present the advantages seem to be of no great consequence, which might be reaped from an intercourse with these islanders; it is however certain, that the same objection might have been made to the first discoverers of America; and every body is at present sensible of the benefit accruing to these kingdoms from its American settlements. F.