friends remained on board till the ships were under sail;
when, to gratify their curiosity, I ordered five guns to be fired.
They then all took their leave, except Omai, who remained till we
were at sea. We had come to sail by a hawser fastened to the shore. In
casting the ship, it parted, being cut by the rocks, and the outer end
was left behind, as those who cast it off did not perceive that it
was broken, so that it became necessary to send a boat to bring it
on board. In this boat, Omai went ashore, after taking a very
affectionate farewell of all the officers. He sustained himself with
a manly resolution till he came to me. Then his utmost efforts to
conceal his tears failed; and Mr King, who went in the boat, told me,
that he wept all the time in going ashore.

It was no small satisfaction to reflect, that we had brought him safe
back to the very spot from which he was taken. And yet, such is the
strange nature of human affairs, that it is probable we left him in a
less desirable situation than he was in before his connection with
us. I do not by this mean, that because he has tasted the sweets of
civilized life, he must become more miserable from being obliged to
abandon all thoughts of continuing them. I confine myself to this
single disagreeable circumstance, that the advantages he received from
us have placed him in a more hazardous situation, with respect to his
personal safety. Omai, from being much caressed in England, lost sight
of his original condition; and never considered in what manner his
acquisitions, either of knowledge or of riches, would be estimated by
his countrymen at his return, which were the only things he could have
to recommend him to them now, more than before, and on which he could
build either his future greatness or happiness. He seemed even to have
mistaken their genius in this respect, and, in some measure, to have
forgotten their customs, otherwise he must have known the extreme
difficulty there would be in getting himself admitted as a person of
rank, where there is, perhaps, no instance of a man's being raised
from an inferior station by the greatest merit. Rank seems to be the
very foundation of all distinction here, and, of its attendant, power;
and so pertinaciously, or rather blindly adhered to, that, unless a
person has some degree of it, he will certainly be despised and hated,
if he assumes the appearance of exercising any authority. This was
really the case, in some meas