A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
I have already mentioned the visit that I had from one of the two
natives of this island, who had been carried by the Spaniards to
Lima. I never saw him afterward, which I rather wondered at, as I had
received him with uncommon civility. I believe, however, that Omai
had kept him at a distance from me, by some rough usage; jealous that
there should be another traveller upon the island who might vie with
himself. Our touching at Teneriffe was a fortunate circumstance for
Omai; as he prided himself in having visited a place belonging to
Spain as well as this man. I did not meet with the other, who had
returned from Lima; but Captain Clerke, who had seen him, spoke of
him as a low fellow, and as a little out of his senses. His own
countrymen, I found, agreed in the same account of him. In short,
these two adventurers seemed to be held in no esteem. They had
not, indeed, been so fortunate as to return home with such valuable
acquisitions of property as we had bestowed upon Omai; and, with the
advantages he reaped from his voyage to England, it must be his own
fault if he should sink into the same state of insignificance.
SECTION V.
_Arrival at Eimeo.--Two Harbours there, and an Account of them.--Visit
from Maheine, Chief of the Island.--His Person described.--A Goat
stolen, and sent back with the Thief.--Another Goat stolen, and
secreted.--Measures taken on the Occasion.--Expedition cross the
Island.--Houses and Canoes burnt.--The Goat delivered up, and Peace
restored. Some Account of the Island, &c._
As I did not give up my design of touching at Eimeo, at day-break, in
the morning of the 30th, after leaving Otaheite, I stood for the north
end of the island; the harbour which I wished to examine being at that
part of it. Omai, in his canoe, having arrived there long before us,
had taken some necessary measures to shew us the place. However, we
were not without pilots, having several men of Otaheite on board, and
not a few women. Not caring to trust entirely to these guides, I sent
two boats to examine the harbour; and, on their making the signal for
safe anchorage, we stood in with the ships, and anchored close up to
the head of the inlet, in ten fathoms water, over a bottom of soft
mud, and moored with a hawser fast to the shore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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