from Mataia to Mourooa inclusive,
the people of Otaheite are acquainted with a low uninhabited island,
which they name Mopeeha, and seems to be Howe's Island, laid down to
the westward of Mourooa in our late charts of this ocean. To this the
inhabitants of the most leeward islands sometimes go. There are also
several low islands, to the north-eastward of Otaheite, which they
have sometimes visited, but not constantly; and are said to be only at
the distance of two days' sail, with a fair wind. They were thus named
to me:

Mataeeva,
Oanaa, called Oannah, in Dalrymple's letter to Hawkesworth
Taboohoe,
Awehee,
Kaoora,
Orootooa,
Otavaoo, where are large pearls.

The inhabitants of these isles come more frequently to Otaheite and
the other neighbouring high islands, from whose natives they differ
in being of a darker colour, with a fiercer aspect, and differently
punctured. I was informed, that at Mataeeva, and others of them, it is
a custom for the men to give their daughters to strangers who arrive
amongst them; but the pairs must be five nights lying near each other,
without presuming to proceed farther. On the sixth evening, the
father of the young woman, treats his guest with food, and informs his
daughter, that she must, that night, receive him as her husband. The
stranger, however, must not offer to express the least dislike, though
the bed-fellow allotted to him should be ever so disagreeable; for
this is considered as an unpardonable affront, and is punished with
death. Forty men of Bolabola, who, incited by curiosity, had roamed as
far as Mataeeva in a canoe, were treated in this manner; one of them
having incautiously mentioned his dislike of the woman who fell to his
lot, in the hearing of a boy, who informed her father. In consequence
of this the Mateevans fell upon them; but these warlike people killed
three times their own number; though with the loss of all their
party, except five. These hid themselves in the woods, and took an
opportunity, when the others were burying their dead, to enter some
houses, where, having provided themselves with victuals and water,
they carried them on board a canoe, in which they made their escape;
and, after passing Mataia, at which they would not touch, at last
arrived safe at Eimeo. The Bolabolans, however, were sensible enough
that their travellers had been to blame; for a canoe from Mateeva,
arriving some time after at Bolabola, so far were they from
re