excepting for hostile purposes, the inhabitants rarely visit each other. But were we even to allow, that there is a frequent intercourse between them, which from the distance alone is highly improbable, yet it is hardly possible, that the disease should have spread so far, and so universally, as we found it at Ouwhyee (Hawaii), in the short space of time which intervened between our first and second visit to the Sandwich Islands. On the same supposition, it will appear very extraordinary, that we should have found it more common by far at Ouwhyee (Hawaii) than at Atowai (Kauai), the place where we are supposed to have first left it. That this was the case, however, from my situation at that time, as surgeon of the "Discovery," I am able to pronounce with some certainty. The priests pretended to be expert at curing it, and seemed to have an established mode of treatment; which by no means implied, that it was a recent complaint among them, much less that it was introduced only a few months before. Whence, or at what time, the inhabitants of those islands received disease, or whether or not it be indigenous among them, is what I do not pretend even to guess: but from the circumstances above-mentioned, I think myself warranted in saying, that there are by no means sufficient proofs of our having first introduced it; but that, on the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that they were afflicted with it before we discovered those islands. FOOTNOTES: [1] I take it for granted, that most of those into whose hands these pages may fall, have perused Captain Cook's last Voyage, and therefore, I have all along mentioned the names of the principal actors in this account, as people with whom they are already acquainted. But as I differ so much in the orthography of the language of the Sandwich Islands from that used in the printed Voyage, it becomes necessary for me to explain the names I use in this narrative, by those already known. It may appear strange, how we should differ so much; but so it is:--which is the most accurate, some future visitor may determine. Karakakooa I call Ke,rag,e,goo,ah (Kealakekua) Terreeoboo ---- Kariopoo (Kaleiopuu, better known as Kalaniopuu) Kowrowa ---- Kavaroah (Kaawaloa) Kaneecabareea ---- Kaneekapo,herei (Kanekapulei) Maiha maiha ---- Ka,mea,mea (Kamehameha) [2] Called Koah by Cook.--Ed. [3] Called Kaneena by Cook; Kanina by Fornander.--Ed. [4] Keoua Kuahuula and Keoua Peeale.--Ed. [5] Probably Keoua Peeale.--Ed.