ever, and if the latter, how long it would be before he
departed. He was informed that the ships were to sail in eighteen days.
Another council was now held, at which Bougainville was desired to be
present. A grave man who took an active part in the conference, was very
desirous to reduce the time of encamping to half the number of days; but
Bougainville still insisted on his original proposal, to which at last
the council assented, and a good understanding was immediately restored.
The remainder of the stay here does not seem, however, to have been
either very peaceable or free from danger. The thieving disposition of
the natives occasioned several unpleasant contentions and perpetual
jealousy. Two of them were murdered by some of the crew, but on what
grounds, or by whom particularly, it is said, could not be discovered.
The circumstance led to much apprehension of an attempt to revenge, and
measures were accordingly taken to render it inefficient, but they were
seemingly unnecessary. The dangers at sea were much more formidable, and
far less easily provided against. It is perhaps quite enough to say of
them, that the ships were for a considerable time in the greatest risque
of being wrecked on the reef coast of the island, and that in the short
space of nine days during which they were here, they lost no less than
six anchors. All this, it is probable, would have been avoided, if
Bougainville had been better acquainted with the island. His description
of it, indeed, is so imperfect, and in several respects erroneous, as to
be altogether void of interest to any one who peruses what we have
already given on the subject, in the preceding and present volumes. We
shall accordingly pass it over, specifying only a few particulars
respecting one of its natives Aotourou, who, at his own desire,
accompanied Bougainville to Europe, and whose history has attracted a
little notice.

This young man was the son of an Otaheitan chief, and a captive woman of
the neighbouring isle of Oopoa, with the natives of which the Otaheitans
often carried on war. Immediately on Bougainville's arrival at his
native place, he expressed a determination to follow the strangers,
which his countrymen seemed to applaud, and his zeal in which was so
great as to overcome an attachment to a handsome girl, from whom he had
to tear himself on coming aboard the ship. Bougainville admits, that in
yielding to this determination, he hoped to avail himself of one