entertained from the first, that the meaning of those Indians had been misunderstood on board the "Resolution." An instance happened soon afterwards which convinced me, that no credit whatsoever is to be given to such information. We had not been long arrived at Atowai (Kauai) a second time, before an Indian came on board the "Discovery," who appeared to the gentleman who first spoke to him, clearly to charge us with having left the disease at that island, on our former visit. As I was known to be an unbeliever, the man was at last referred to me; and, I confess, I was a little staggered at first with the answers he gave me; but presently, suspecting from his manner, that he would answer every question proposed to him in the affirmative, I asked him, if they did not receive the disease first from Oahoo (Oahu); a neighbouring island, which we had not touched at, when we were in these parts before: the man directly answered, that they had; and strenuously persisted in the same, every time the question was put to him, either by myself, or the gentleman who had first examined him. Such contradictory accounts as these, prove nothing, but our ignorance of their language, and consequently, how apt we are to be misled in enquiries of this sort. I never put any confidence in them myself, and have often been surprised to see others put so much. Yet those who have maintained that we left the disease at Sandwich Islands, have no better foundation than this, to rest their opinion upon. Whether it be sufficient to support such an accusation, I will leave others to judge, after what I have related above; and proceed to point out such other circumstances as tend to prove, that the disease was not left at these islands by our ships. From everything we could learn, it appeared, that there is but little intercourse between Atowai (Kauai) and the islands to windward, especially Ouwhyee (Hawaii), which is about fifty leagues distant; and the nearest to Atowai (Kauai), which is Oahoo (Oahu), is five and twenty leagues. There is generally some misunderstanding between them, and, excepting for hostile purposes, the inhabitants rarely visit each other. But were we even to allow, that there is a frequent intercourse between them, which from the distance alone is highly improbable, yet it is hardly possible, that the disease should have spread so far, and so universally, as we found it at Ouwhyee (Hawaii), in the short space of time which intervened between our first and second visit to the Sandwich Islands. On the same supposition, it will appear very extraordinary, that we should have found it more common by far at Ouwhyee (Hawaii) than at Atowai (Kauai), the place where we are supposed to have first left it. That this was the case, however, from my situation at that time, as surgeon of the "Discovery," I am able to pronounce with some certainty. The priests pretended to be expert at curing it, and seemed to have an established mode of treatment; which by no means implied, that it was a recent complaint among them, much less that it was introduced only a few months before.

Whence, or at what time, the inhabitants of those islands received disease, or whether or not it be indigenous among them, is what I do not pretend even to guess: but from the circumstances above-mentioned, I think myself warranted in saying, that there are by no means sufficient proofs of our having first introduced it; but that, on the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that they were afflicted with it before we discovered those islands.

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