amongst his countrymen, than a stranger who naturally claims respect.  But Omai remained undetermined to the last, and would not, I believe, have adopted my plan of settlement in Huaheine, if I had not so explicitly refused to employ force in restoring him to his father’s possessions.  Whether the remains of his European wealth, which after all his improvident waste, was still considerable, will be more prudently administered by him, or whether the steps I took, as already explained, to insure him protection in Huaheine, shall have proved effectual, must be left to the decision of future navigators of this ocean, with whom it cannot but be a principal object of curiosity to trace the future fortunes of our traveller.  At present, I can only conjecture that his greatest danger will arise from the very impolitic declarations of his antipathy to the inhabitants of Bolabola.  For these people, from a principle of jealousy, will, no doubt, endeavour to render him obnoxious to those of Huaheine; as they are at peace with that island at present, and may easily effect their designs, many of them living there.  This is a circumstance, which, of all others, he might the most easily have avoided.  For they were not only free from any aversion to him, but the person mentioned before, whom we found at Tiaraboo as an ambassador, priest, or god, absolutely offered to reinstate him in the property that was formerly his father’s.  But he refused this peremptorily; and, to the very last, continued determined to take the first opportunity that offered of satisfying his revenge in battle.  To this, I guess, he was not a little spurred by the coat of mail he brought from England; clothed in which, and in possession of some fire-arms, he fancied that he should be invincible.

Whatever faults belonged to Omai’s character, they were more than overbalanced by his great good-nature and docile disposition.  During the whole time he was with me, I very seldom had reason to be seriously displeased with his general conduct.  His grateful heart always retained the highest sense of the favours he had received in England, nor will he ever forget those who honoured him with their protection and friendship, during his stay there.  He had a tolerable share of understanding, but wanted application and perseverance to exert it; so that his knowledge of things was very general, and, in many instances, imperfect.  He was not a man of much observation.  There were many useful arts, as well as elegant amusements, amongst the people of the Friendly Islands, which he might have conveyed to his own, where they probably would have been readily adopted, as being so much in their own way.  But I never found that he used the least endeavour to make himself master of any one.  This kind of indifference is indeed the characteristic foible of his nation.  Europeans have visited them at times for these ten years past, yet we could not discover the slightest trace of any attempt to profit by this intercourse, nor have they hitherto