got; and if
one is not over nice, there will be no want. While we lay at anchor
under Kotoo, on our return from Hepaee, some people from Kao informed
us, that there was a stream of water there, which, pouring down from the
mountain, runs into the sea on the S.W. side of the island; that is, on,
the side that faces Toofoa, another island remarkable for its height, as
also for having a considerable volcano in it, which, as has been already
mentioned, burnt violently all the time that we were in its
neighbourhood. It may be worth while for future navigators to attend to
this intelligence about the stream of water at Kao, especially as we
learned that there was anchorage on that part of the coast. The black
stone, of which the natives of the Friendly Islands make their hatchets
and other tools, we were informed, is the production of Toofoa.

Under the denomination of Friendly Islands, we must include, not only
the group at Hepaee which I visited, but also all those islands that
have been discovered nearly under the same meridian to the north, as
well as some others that have never been seen hitherto by any European
navigators, but are under the dominion of Tongataboo, which, though not
the largest, is the capital and seat of government.

According to the information that we received there, this archipelago is
very extensive. Above one hundred and fifty islands were reckoned up to
us by the natives, who made use of bits of leaves to ascertain their
number; and Mr Anderson, with his usual diligence, even procured all
their names. Fifteen of them are said to be high or hilly, such, as
Toofoa and Eooa, and thirty-five of them large. Of these, only three
were seen this voyage; Hepaee, (which is considered by the natives as
one island,) Tongataboo, and Eooa: Of the size of the unexplored
thirty-two, nothing more can be mentioned, but that they must be all
larger than Annamooka, which those from whom we had our information
ranked amongst the smaller isles. Some, or indeed several of this latter
denomination, are mere spots without inhabitants. But it must be left to
future navigators to introduce into the geography of this part of the
South Pacific Ocean the exact situation and size of near a hundred more
islands in this neighbourhood, which we had not an opportunity to
explore, and whose existence we only learnt from the testimony of our
friends as above-mentioned. On their authority the following list of
them was made, and it