As soon as he
became sufficiently acquainted with the language, he asked the natives how
they obtained those articles, as they said that the Hunter was the first
ship with which they had ever held communication. They replied, that about
two days' sail in their canoes to leeward, there was a large group of
islands, known generally by the name of Manicolo, to which they were in
the habit of making frequent voyages, and that they had procured these
articles from the inhabitants, who possessed many more of a similar
description.
Buchart proceeded to state, that the Tucopians asserted that a great
number of articles were on the Manicolo Islands in a state of preservation,
and such articles were evidently obtained from the wreck of a vessel.
About seven months before captain Dillon touched at Tucopia, a canoe had
returned from Manicolo, and brought away two large chain plates, and an
iron bolt, about four feet in length. He spoke with some of the crew of
the canoe which had last made the voyage to Manicolo.
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