A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels | Page 8

us, in the course of this day, we learnt that

two ships had twice been in Oheitepeha Bay, since my last visit to this
island in 1774, and that they had left animals there such as we had on
board. But, on farther enquiry, we found they were only hogs, dogs,
goats, one bull, and the male of some other animal, which, from the
imperfect description now given us, we could not find out. They told us
that these ships had come from a place called Reema, by which we
guessed that Lima, the capital of Peru, was meant, and that these late
visitors were Spaniards. We were informed that the first time they came,
they built a house, and left four men behind them, viz. two priests, a
boy or servant, and a fourth person called Mateema, who was much
spoken of at this time, carrying away with them, when they sailed, four
of the natives; that, in about ten months, the same two ships returned,
bringing back two of the islanders, the other two having died at Lima,
and that, after a short stay, they took away their own people; but that
the house which they had built was left standing.
The important news of red feathers being on board our ships, having
been conveyed on shore by Omai's friends, day had no sooner begun to
break, next morning, than we were surrounded by a multitude of canoes,
crowded with people, bringing hogs and fruits to market. At first, a
quantity of feathers, not greater than what might be got from a tom-tit,
would purchase a hog of forty or fifty pounds weight. But, as almost
every body in the ships was possessed of some of this precious article
of trade, it fell in its value above five hundred per cent. before night.
However, even then, the balance was much in our favour, and red
feathers continued to preserve their superiority over every other
commodity. Some of the natives would not part with a hog, unless they
received an axe in exchange; but nails and beads, and other trinkets,
which, during our former voyages, had so great a run at this island,
were now so much despised, that few would deign so much as to look
at them.
There being but little wind all the morning, it was nine o'clock before
we could get to an anchor in the bay, where we moored with the two
bowers. Soon after we had anchored, Omai's sister came on board to
see him. I was happy to observe, that, much to the honour of them both,
their meeting was marked with expressions of the tenderest affection,

easier to be conceived than to be described.
This moving scene having closed, and the ship being properly moored,
Omai and I went ashore. My first object was to pay a visit to a man
whom my friend represented as a very extraordinary personage indeed,
for he said that he was the god of Bolabola. We found him seated under
one of those small awnings which they usually carry in their larger
canoes. He was an elderly man, and had lost the use of his limbs, so
that he was carried from place to place upon a hand-barrow. Some
called him Olla, or Orra, which is the name of the god of Bolabola, but
his own proper name was Etary. From Omai's account of this person, I
expected to have seen some religious adoration paid to him. But,
excepting some young plantain trees that lay before him, and upon the
awning under which he sat, I could observe nothing by which he might
be distinguished from their other chiefs. Omai presented to him a tuft
of red feathers, tied to the end of a small stick; but, after a little
conversation on indifferent matters with this Bolabola man, his
attention was drawn to an old woman, the sister of his mother. She was
already at his feet, and had bedewed them plentifully with tears of joy.
I left him with the old lady, in the midst of a number of people who had
gathered round him, and went to take a view of the house said to be
built by the strangers who had lately been here. I found it standing at a
small distance from the beach. The wooden materials of which it was
composed seemed to have been brought hither, ready prepared, to be
set up occasionally; for all the planks were numbered. It was divided
into two small rooms; and in the inner one were a bedstead, a table, a
bench, some old hats, and other trifles, of which the natives seemed to
be very careful, as also of the house itself, which had suffered no hurt
from the weather, a shed having been