he situation and distances of these isles, were
so various and so vague, that we could by no means depend upon them,
for we never met with any man who had visited them; however, they
served to convince us, that the natives of the Society Isles have
sometimes extended their navigation farther than its present limits,
by the knowledge they have of several adjacent countries. Tupaya
(Tupia), the famous man who embarked at Taheitee in the Endeavour, had
enumerated a much more considerable list of names, and had actually
drawn a map of their respective situations and magnitudes, of which
Lieutenant Pickersgill obligingly communicated a copy to me. In this
map we found all the names now mentioned, except two; but if his
drawing had been exact, our ships must have sailed over a number of
the islands which he had laid down. It is therefore very probable,
that the vanity of appearing more intelligent than he really was, had
prompted him to produce this fancied chart of the South Sea, and
perhaps to invent many of the names of islands in it, which amounted
to more than fifty."--G.F.

[2] Some of our readers might be profited, perhaps, by considering the
moral of the following incident, which occurred at this play.--"Among
the spectators we observed several of the prettiest women of this
country; and one of them was remarkable for the whitest complexion we
had ever seen on all these islands. Her colour resembled that of white
wax a little sullied, without having the least appearance of sickness,
which that hue commonly conveys; and her fine black eyes and hair
contrasted so well with it, that she was admired by us all. She
received at first a number of little presents, which were so many
marks of homage paid at the shrine of beauty; but her success, instead
of gratifying, only sharpened her love of trinkets, and she
incessantly importuned every one of us, as long as she suspected we
had a single bead left. One of the gentlemen fortunately happened to
have a little padlock in his hand, which she begged for as soon as she
had perceived it. After denying it for some time, he consented to give
it her, and locked it in her ear, assuring her that was its proper
place. She was pleased for some time; but finding it too heavy,
desired him to unlock it. He flung away the key, giving her to
understand, at