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[Page 4]
The inhabitants of this island during our whole stay of 3 months behav'd to us with great affability: Mr Bougainville's account of them is as good as cou'd be expected from a man who staid among them only 9 days & never (tho' a native went away with him) made himself master of their Language, (This, not only myself, but several of our Company did;) & of it I shall only say, that Mr. Bougainville has omitted in his vocabulary every aspirate in it: (tho' the use of them is very frequent,) I suppose in Confirmity to his Mother Tongue. After a stay of 3 months we left our belov'd islanders, wth much regret on ye 13th. of July, & sail'd to the Westward in search of other islands; wch a native of otaheite who chose to embark wth us offerd to direct us to; we found them with great facility, they were in number 6 Huaheine, Qehieta, Otaha, bolabola, Maurua, & Tupi; the natives of which, we found to be of exactly the same manners, Customs, & language, as those of Otaheite. After a month's stay among them, we left them on ye 9th. of August; in order to steer to ye southward, in hopes of finding a land more worthy our notice tho' we were absurdly forbid to proceed