On the 14th, we discovered the isle of Huaheine, which is high land, but the wind being against us, we could not reach it; we therefore tacked about, and took a stretch toward an island that we saw at a distance, which Toobaiah told us was Yoolee-Etea.

In the afternoon of this day it was almost calm; and we had but little wind till the next day, being the 15th; at noon we had a fine breeze; and at five in the afternoon were within six leagues of the island of Huaheine. It was made up of several peaks of high land, and divided, like Otaheite, by some lower land inter-vening. The island appeared to be almost as large again as Eimayo; and, from the mast head, we could discover the tops of the mountains of Yoolee-Etea, over those of Huaheine.

Toobaiah praying in the afternoon, in the stern-windows, called out, with much fervor, O Tane, ara mai, matai, ora mai matai; which is to say, Tane (the god of his Morai) send to me, or come to me with a fair wind; but his prayer proving ineffectual, he said, Wooreede waow, I am angry. However, he told us that we should have wind when the sun arrived at the meridian, and so it happened, though we did not impute to him the gift of prophecy or foresight.

Toobaiah told us they often had wars with the natives of Atiarabo, a neighbouring island; and that, when they take any of them prisoners, they cut off their under-jaws, and hang them up. Several of these trophies of victory Mr. Banks saw hung up in a man’s house at Atiarabo, in one of his excursions among the people of Oboreano, at a time when they had made prisoners Oroamo’s four brothers, and two of Oboreah’s, and had taken all her canoes.

Voyaging Accounts