GREAT COMET.
55
comfort and safety of all our seamen, did they follow his example.
On the 30th, the great comet of that year was observed: its tail subtended an angle of 42°. When Tupia saw it, he instantly cried out, that the people of Bolabola would kill the inhabitants of Ulietea: the sight of a comet, among the South Sea islanders, as among many other nations, being regarded as portending war and bloodshed.
