It will appear a little extraordinary, that we, who had a smattering of their language, and Omai, besides, for an interpreter, could never get any clear account of the time when the Spaniards arrived, how long they stayed, and when they departed. The more we inquired into this matter, the more we were convinced of the inability of most of these people to remember, or note the time, when past events happened; especially if it exceeded ten or twenty months. It, however, appeared, by the date of the inscription upon the cross, and by the information we received from the most intelligent of the natives, that two ships arrived at Oheitepeha in 1774, soon after I left Matavai, which was in May, the same year. They brought with them the house and live-stock before mentioned. Some said, that, after landing these things, and some men, they sailed in quest of me, and returned in about ten days. But I have some doubt of the truth of this, as they were never seen, either at Huaheine, or at Ulietea. The live-stock they left here, consisted of one bull, some goats, hogs, and dogs, and the male of some other animal; which we afterwards found to be a ram, and, at this time, was at Bolabola, whither the bull was also to have been transported.
The hogs are of a large kind; have already greatly improved the breed originally found by us upon the island; and, at the time of our late arrival, were very numerous; Goats are, also, in tolerable plenty; there being hardly a chief of any note that has not got some. As to the dogs that the Spaniards put ashore, which are of two or three sorts, I think they would have done the island a great deal more service, if they had hanged them all, instead of leaving them upon it. It was to one of them that my young ram fell a victim.
When these ships left the islands, four Spaniards remained behind. Two were priests, one a servant, and the fourth made himself very popular among the natives, who distinguish him by the name of Mateema. He seems to have been a person who had studied their language; or, at least, to have spoken it so as to be understood; and to have taken uncommon pains to impress the minds of the islanders with the most exalted ideas of the greatness of the Spanish nation, and to make them think meanly of the English. He even went so far as to assure them, that we no longer existed as an independent nation; that _Pretane_ was only a small island, which they, the Spaniards, had entirely destroyed; and for me, that they had met with me at sea, and, with a few shot, had sent my ship, and every soul in her, to the bottom; so that my visiting Otaheite, at this time, was, of course, very unexpected. All this, and many other improbable falsehoods, did this Spaniard make these people believe. If Spain had no other views in this expedition, but to depreciate the English, they had better have kept their ships at home; for my returning again to Otaheite was considered as a complete confutation of all that Mateema had said.