and
neighbouring islands. They are sensible of their pre-eminence, and boast
of their country, in whatever island you meet them. They are tatooed in a
particular manner; and whether they may have spread their conquests, or
other nations imitated them, I could not learn; but a prodigious number,
in islands we afterwards visited, were tatooed in their fashion. What was
most singular, we saw some with the glans of the penis entirely tatooed;
and our men, from being tatooed in the legs, arms, and breast, places of
much less sensation, were often lame for a week, from the excruciating
torture of the operation. Tatahu likewise informed us there were no white
men on Tubai, a small island to the northward of Bolobola, and under his
jurisdiction; nor upon Mauruah, another island in sight, and to the
westward of Bolobola. He also mentioned another island, which he called
Mopehah. Here Oedidy went on shore; but getting drunk in meeting some of
his old friends, he fell asleep, and lost his passage. On the 12th we
left Mauruah, and on the 13th lost sight of the Society Islands.

Here one of the prisoners begged to speak with the Captain, and gave
information of Mr. Christian's intended rout.

We now shaped our course to fall in to the eastward of Whytutakee, an
island discovered by Capt. Bligh, and on the 19th made the island. We
sent the boat on shore, covered by the tender, to examine it; but found
it a thing impossible for the _Bounty_ to have been there; and the
natives said they had seen no white people. They were very shy, and we
could not coax them on board. One of them recollected having seen Lieut.
Hayward on board the _Bounty_. Here we purchased from the natives a spear
of most exquisite workmanship. It was nine feet long, and cut in the form
of a Gothic spire, all its ornaments being executed in a kind of alto
relievo; which, from the slow progress they made with stone tools, must
have been the labour of a man's whole life.

Here nature begins to assume a ruder aspect; and the silken bands of love
gives way to the rustic garniture of war. The natives of either sex wear
no cloathing, but a girdle of stained leaves round their middle, and the
men a gorget, of the exact shape and size as at present wore by officers
in our service. It is made of the pearl oyster-shell. The centre is
black, and the transparent part of the shell is left as an edge or border
to it, which gives it a very fine effect. It is slung round their nec