Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/211

] rity was exercised, as we observed on several occasions.

Vouacécé, one of the chiefs of Feejee, had arrived at Tongataboo, soon after we anchored there. We were frequently visited by him, and he affirmed to us, what he had said several times, that it would take him three days sailing, in his double canoe, with a south-east wind, to reach Feejee, the situation of which he pointed out to the north-west. Hence we reckoned, that this island, which is very lofty, and of the fertility of which he boasted much, was about a hundred and fifty leagues from Tongataboo. This is an immense voyage for people, who, having no instruments, steer only by observing the sun and stars with the naked eye, as soon as they are out of sight of land: but it is still more difficult to conceive, how they can reach Tongataboo from such a distance, when they have to work up against the south-east winds; and they must be very sure of their marks in the heavens, not to miss the land, after being obliged to ply to windward, as they are sometimes, for more than a month.

The people of Tongataboo informed us, that the natives of the Feejee Islands were cannibals; but Vouacécé endeavoured to exculpate himself from this accusation, by assuring us, that the lower class of people only, the touas, ate human