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INTRODUCTION.
The cluster of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, whose inhabitants constitute the subject of the present work, is that to which Captain Cook gave the epithet "Friendly:" his chart of the Friendly[1] Islands however does not include Vavaoo, which he did not visit; and as this island is the largest, and now comparatively the most important of all those belonging to the same archipelago, which, in his time, were under the same government, and still speak precisely the same language, and follow the same customs, we have thought it expedient to denote them all by one common name, which the natives them-
- ↑ He gave them this name on account of the apparent amicable disposition of the natives towards him; but in reality their intention was to massacre him and his friends, and take the two ships, as they did afterwards the Port au Prince. See Vol. II. p. 60.
