our guns) of such dimensions that several people might sit within them, and that one of them was sufficient to crush the whole island at one shot.  This led them to enquire of him what sort of guns we actually had in our two ships.  He said, that though they were but small in comparison with those he had just described, yet, with such as they were, we could, with the greatest ease, and at the distance the ships were from the shore, destroy the island, and kill every soul in it.  They persevered in their enquiries, to know by what means this could be done; and Omai explained the matter as well as he could.  He happened luckily to have a few cartridges in his pocket.  These he produced; the balls, and the gunpowder which was to set them in motion, were submitted to inspection; and, to supply the defects of his description, an appeal was made to the senses of the spectators.  It has been mentioned above, that one of the chiefs had ordered the multitude to form themselves into a circle.  This furnished Omai with a convenient stage for his exhibition.  In the centre of this amphitheatre, the inconsiderable quantity of gunpowder collected from his cartridges was properly disposed upon the ground, and, by means of a bit of burning wood from the oven, where dinner was dressing, set on fire.  The sudden blast and loud report, the mingled flame and smoke, that instantly succeeded, now filled the whole assembly with astonishment.  They no longer doubted the tremendous power of our weapons, and gave full credit to all that Omai had said.

If it had not been for the terrible ideas they conceived of the guns of our ships, from this specimen of their mode of operation, it was thought that they would have detained the gentlemen all night.  For Omai assured them, that if he and his companions did not return on board the same day, they might expect that I would fire upon the island.  And as we stood in nearer the land in the evening, than we had done any time before, of which position of the ships they were observed to take great notice, they probably thought we were meditating this formidable attack, and, therefore, suffered their guests to depart; under the expectation, however, of seeing them again on shore next morning.  But I was too sensible of the risk they had already run, to think of a repetition of the experiment.

This day, it seems, was destined to give Omai more occasions than one of being brought forward to bear a principal part in its transactions.  The island, though never before visited by Europeans, actually happened to have other strangers residing in it; and it was entirely owing to Omai’s being one of Mr Gore’s attendants, that this curious circumstance came to our knowledge.

Scarcely had he been landed upon the beach, when he found, amongst the crowd there assembled, three of his own countrymen, natives of the Society Islands.  At the distance of about 200 leagues from those islands, an immense, unknown ocean intervening, with such wretched sea-boats as their inhabitants are known to make use of, and fit only for a passage where sight of land is scarcely ever lost, such a meeting, at such a place, so accidentally visited by us, may well be looked upon as one of those unexpected situations with which the writers of feigned adventures love to surprise their readers, and which, when they really happen in common life, deserve to be recorded for their singularity.