BOOK III.
TRANSACTIONS AT OTAHEITE, AND THE SOCIETY ISLANDS; AND PROSECUTION OF THE VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.
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The narrative continues a Pacific exploration, recording the second part of a third voyage and detailing landfalls across the Society Islands. It mixes navigational log entries and natural observations — including an eclipse — with ethnographic description of island geography, dwellings, canoes, dress, religious rites, and violent customs such as human sacrifice and inter-island war. The account follows relations with local chiefs, notably Omai, describes exchanges of gifts, the introduction of European animals, encounters with Spanish ships, ceremonies at marae, and shipboard incidents and repairs, before the expedition resumes its course toward the north American coast.
TRANSACTIONS AT OTAHEITE, AND THE SOCIETY ISLANDS; AND PROSECUTION OF THE VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.