taliating upon them for the death of their countrymen, that they
acknowledged they had deserved their fate, and treated their visitors
kindly.

These low isles are, doubtless, the farthest navigation which those of
Otaheite and the Society Islands perform at present. It seems to be a
groundless supposition, made by Mons. de Bougainville, that they made
voyages of the prodigious extent[5] he mentions; for I found, that it
is reckoned a sort of a prodigy, that a canoe, once driven by a storm
from Otaheite, should have fallen in with Mopeeha, or Howe's Island,
though so near, and directly to leeward. The knowledge they have
of other distant islands is, no doubt, traditional; and has been
communicated to them by the natives of those islands, driven
accidentally upon their coasts, who, besides giving them the names,
could easily inform them of the direction in which the places lie from
whence they came, and of the number of days they had been upon the
sea. In this manner, it may be supposed, that the natives of Wateeoo
have increased their catalogue by the addition of Otaheite and its
neighbouring isles, from the people we met with there, and also of
the other islands these had heard of. We may thus account for that
extensive knowledge attributed by the gentlemen of the Endeavour to
Tupia in such matters. And, with all due deference to his veracity,
I presume that it was, by the same means of information, that he was
able to direct the ship to Oheteroa, without having ever been
there himself, as he pretended; which, on many accounts, is very
improbable.[6]

[Footnote 5: See _Bougainville's Voyage autour du Monde_, p. 228,
where we are told that these people sometimes navigate at the distance
of more than three hundred leagues.--D.]

[Footnote 6: Though much of Mr Anderson's account of Otaheite, &c. be
very similar to what has been given in the preceding relations, yet
it must be allowed to possess too great merit to warrant omission
or alteration. He has been fortunate, certainly, in delineating the
manners and opinions of the people; and perhaps, on the whole,
his information bears more decisive marks of care and intimate
acquaintance than any other we possess on the subject. This, it may
be said, is no very high merit; because, having the benefit of pretty
extensive labours, he had only to compare a picture with its original,
as presented to his notice, and was under no necessity of dividing
his attention among a multi