III

In 1768 the Samoa group was again visited; this time by the French navigator, de Bougainville, who discovered Tutuila, in Eastern Samoa, and who also sighted Upolu. Like his predecessor he gave the archipelago a name that has not endured, calling it the "Iles des Navigateurs"—"being inspired, apparently, by the great number of canoes seen paddling about the shores, as they may be seen to this day." There is little to be learned from Bougainville's account.

Captain Cook heard of the islands in 1773, from the Tongans, or Friendly Islanders, who inhabit a group to the south, and noted some of their names. The Samoans perhaps are to be congratulated that Cook did not visit them, for his men are credited with introducing syphilis into the Pacific: a distemper practically, if not entirely, unknown in Samoa. Some, however, among the early voyagers to the Navigators appear to have left page 13a legacy of disease, for there occur the passages in old Samoan prayers: "Here is kava for you, O sailing gods! Do not come on shore at this place; but be pleased to depart along the ocean to some other land." And again, this time to the household deity and the gods superior and inferior, with an offering of flaming fire, just before the evening meal.

"Calling upon someone to blow up the fire and make it blaze, and begging all to be silent, a senior member of the family would pray aloud as follows:—'This is light for you, O king and gods superior and inferior! If any of you are forgotten, do not be angry, this light is for you all…. Drive away from us sailing gods, lest they come and cause disease and death. Protect this family by your presence, and may health and long life be given to us all.'"¹