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514 T H E G O S P E L M A G A Z I N E.
Islands, particularly with Tongataboo, where the chiefs of all the islands of this group used to reside. At this island he was found, in the latter part of 1801, by the ship Plumo, Captain Read, from Port Jackson. On board this ship he embarked; and, as their course was directed through the dangerous group of the Fegees, and the ship badly equipped, by striking on a coral reef, she afterwards proceeded, in an un-seaworthy state, to the Spanish island of Guam, which, though then hostile to us, they were compelled to enter, when the ship was made a prize, and the crew prisoners ; and, considering their numbers, which were few, and the distressed circumstances that occasioned their throwing themselves on the humanity of the Spaniards, they were certainly treated with rigour ; and though the whole might have got from the island by one conveyance, it was by three different ships that they had their liberty from the Island of Guam; and I am of opinion that Tapeoee arrived at Manilla about the latter end of February 1803. At Manilla Captain Read got the command of a country vessel ; and I have reason to believe that Tapeoee was by him landed at the Banda Islands. In 1806, it appears he was received on board the East India Company's Ship the Warley, Captain Henry Wilson, who arrived in the Thames early in September of that year. This gentleman is well known to us by his shipwreck on the Pelew Islands : the voyage previous he had brought a Chinese, who had been a teacher in that country, at his own request, to see England. The Missionary Directors availed themselves of this opportunity to have a person instructed in the China language; and it was respecting this person (SAN TAK) that Captain Henry Wilson waited on Mr. Hardcastle, to inquire into his conduct, and the fitness of his return ; for, mind, he was bound to see this effected. On this occasion Captain H. Wilson mentioned his having an Otehetian in his ship, and said, that he frequently used the name of Captain Wilson, of the Duff. My uncle being at some distance from town, and myself near, I was called in ; and must here remise, that this manner of introducing Otaheitans into this country, and fixing them on the Society, had frequently been the subject of serious discussion at the regular meetings of the Directors. To promote the objects of their trust, they had tried several South Sea Islanders, with their capability of enduring our climate, and receiving knowledge sufficient to make them useful to their countrymen: yet, though no expense had been spared to attain this object, it has uniformly failed : they have fallen victims to our climate, and so frequently, that it became a question whether the Mission might not be injured by so many landing here, never to return. And I can assure you, having been present at one of those discussions, that this consideration alone, emanating from humanity to the individuals, has induced the Directors to forego this mode of success in their object. Their character as individuals, are superior to my observations; as a Society they have been awake to every call of humanity, and particularly in those cases, which, for want of better information, are used to the prejudice of that cause which so many have united to promote. A few weeks previous to the arrival of Tapeoee, Rymer and Omoa, two Otahei -