[Footnote 6: These appear to have been the most northerly of the Society islands, about 70 marine leagues, or 3-1/2 degrees W. by N. from Recreation island, in lat. 15° 20' S. long. 152° W.]
All the inhabitants of these islands were white, differing only from Europeans in being sun-burnt, and they seemed a very harmless good sort of people, of brisk and lively dispositions, behaving to each other with much civility, and shewing no appearance of wildness or savageness in their behaviour. Their bodies were not painted like those of the islanders they had seen hitherto, but very handsomely cloathed from the waist downwards, with a sort of silk fringes very neatly arranged. On their heads they wore hats of a very neat-looking stuff, very large and wide spreading, in order to keep off the sun, and their necks were adorned with collars or garlands of beautiful odoriferous flowers. The islands appeared quite charming, being agreeably diversified with beautiful hills and intermediate vallies. Each family or tribe appeared to have its separate district, and to compose a separate government or community, all the land being regularly laid out into regular and fair plantations, as had formerly been observed at _Pasch_, or _Easter_ island. In all respects, the natives were the most civilized and best disposed people they had seen in the South Seas. Instead of shewing any terror or apprehension at the arrival of the Dutch, the natives expressed the utmost joy and satisfaction, treating them with the utmost kindness and respect, and manifested the most sincere and deep concern at their departure. Many of the Dutch also felt a similar regret, and would have been well pleased to have made a longer stay in this delightful and plenteous country, among so kind a people, as, by the help of the excellent provisions in great abundance with which these good islands furnished them, all their sick people would have been perfectly recovered in a month. These islands had also one convenience greatly superior to those they had met with before, as there was good anchorage almost every where along their coasts, where they rode in the utmost safety, in from fifteen to twenty fathoms.
So many advantageous circumstances ought to have induced Roggewein and his officers to have remained here longer; but their heads were so full of proceeding for the East Indies, that they were fearful of missing the favourable monsoon, while they afterwards discovered, to their cost, that they were two months too early, instead of two months too late. By this indiscreet step, they sacrificed the health and strength of their crew to such a degree, that they were at length hardly able to navigate their ships, and at one time were on the point of burning one of their ships, that they might be better able to manage the other: All of which inconveniences might have been avoided, had they embraced this opportunity afforded them by Divine Providence, and been contented to remain in a place of safety, plenty, and pleasure, till their sick were recovered, instead of wilfully seeking new dangers which they were so little able to encounter.