We did not get clear of our friends till eleven o’clock, when we weighed, and put to sea; but Oedidee did not leave us till we were almost out of the harbour. He stayed in order to fire some guns; for it being His Majesty’s birth-day, we fired the salute at going away. When I first came to these islands, I had some thought of visiting Tupia’s famous Bolabola. But as I had now got on board a plentiful supply of all manner of refreshments, and the route I had in view allowing me no time to spare, I laid this design aside, and directed my course to the west; taking our final leave of these happy isles, on which benevolent nature has spread her luxuriant sweets with a lavish hand. The natives, copying the bounty of nature, are equally liberal; contributing plentifully and cheerfully to the wants of navigators. During the six weeks we had remained at them, we had fresh pork, and all the fruits which were in season, in the utmost profusion; besides fish at Otaheite, and fowls at the other isles. All these articles we got in exchange for axes, hatchets, nails, chissels, cloth, red feathers, beads, knives, scissars, looking-glasses, &c. articles which will ever be valuable here. I ought not to omit shirts as a very capital article in making presents; especially with those who have any connexions with the fair sex. A shirt here is full as necessary as a piece of gold in England. The ladies at Otaheite, after they had pretty well stripped their lovers of shirts, found a method of clothing themselves with their own cloth. It was their custom to go on shore every morning, and to return on board in the evening, generally clad in rags. This furnished a pretence to importune the lover for better clothes; and when he had no more of his own, he was to dress them in new cloth of the country, which they always left ashore; and appearing again in rags, they must again be clothed. So that the same suit might pass through twenty different hands, and be as often sold, bought, and given away. Before I finish this account of these islands, it is necessary to mention all I know concerning the government of Ulietea and Otaha. Oreo, so often mentioned, is a native of Bolabola; but is possessed of _Whenooas_ or lands at Ulietea; which, I suppose, he, as well as many of his countrymen, got at the conquest. He resides here as Opoony’s lieutenant; seeming to be vested with regal authority, and to be the supreme magistrate in the island. Oo-oo-rou, who is the _Earee_ by hereditary right, seems to have little more left him than the bare title, and his own _Whenooa_ or district, in which, I think, he is sovereign. I have always seen Oreo pay him the respect due to his rank; and he was pleased when he saw me distinguish him from others.