It appeared to me that the Feejee men whom we now saw were much respected here, not only perhaps from the power and cruel manner of their nation’s going to war, but also from their ingenuity.  For they seem to excel the inhabitants of Tongataboo in that respect, if we might judge from several specimens of their skill in workmanship which we saw, such as clubs and spears, which were carved in a very masterly manner, cloth beautifully chequered, variegated mats, earthen pots, and some other articles, all which had a cast of superiority in the execution.

I have mentioned that Feejee lies three days sail from Tongataboo, because these people have no other method of measuring the distance from island to island, but by expressing the time required to make the voyage in one of their canoes.  In order to ascertain this with some precision, or at least to form some judgment how far these canoes can sail in a moderate gale in any given time, I went on board one of them, when under sail, and, by several trials with the log, found that she went seven knots, or miles, in an hour, close hauled, in a gentle gale.  From this I judge, that they will sail, on a medium, With such breezes as generally blow in their sea, about seven or eight miles in an hour.  But the length of each day is not to be reckoned at twenty-four hours.  For when they speak of one day’s sail, they mean no more than from the morning to the evening of the same day, that is, ten or twelve hours at most.  And two days sail with them signifies from the morning of the first day to the evening of the second, and so for any other number of days.  In these navigations, the sun is their guide by day, and the stars by night.  When these are obscured, they have recourse to the points from whence the winds and the waves came upon the vessel.  If during the obscuration, both the wind and the waves should shift, (which, within the limits of the trade-wind seldom happens at any other time,) they are then bewildered, frequently miss their intended port, and are never heard of more.  The history of Omai’s countrymen, who were driven, to Wateeoo, leads us to infer, that those not heard of are not always lost.

Of all the harbours and anchoring places I have met with among these islands, that of Tongataboo is by far the best, not only on account of its great security, but of its capacity, and of the goodness of its bottom.  The risk that we ran in entering it from the north, ought to be a sufficient caution to every future commander, not to attempt that passage again with a ship of burden, since the other, by which we left it, is so much more easy and safe.  To sail into it by this eastern channel, steer in for the N.E. point of the island, and keep along the north shore, with the small isles on your starboard, till you are the length of the east point of the entrance into the lagoon, then edge over for the reef of the small isles, and, on following its direction, it will conduct you through