OWHYHEE, an island in the North Pacific Ocean, the largest and most easterly of the Sandwich Islands, a group so called by Captain Cook, by whom they were discover ed, (1778) in honour of the Earl of Sandwich, his friend and patron. Owhyhee, which is of a triangular shape, lies in 154° 45' west longitude, and 19° north latitude. Its greatest length, in a direction nearly north and south, is 97 miles; its greatest breadth, by a line drawn from east to west, is 78 miles. It is supposed to contain 150,000 in habitants, a number which is daily increasing. The divi visions are six, of which Amakooa and Aheado lie on the north-west ; Apoona and Kaoo on the south-east ; Akona and Kooarta, on the west.
The general aspect of the island is of a mountainous and rugged character. The country. as it recedes from the shore, gradually rises into heights and inequalities, in tersected by deep narrow glens, or rather chasms, but every thing deserving the appellation of a river is com pletely unknown. The two highest mountains, Mouna Kaah and Mouna Roa, which lie on the north east, and the summits of which are constantly buried in snow, must be elevated at least 16,020 feet above the level of the sea, according to the tropical line of snow as determined by M. Condamine, from observations taken on the Cordil leras. The most bleak portion of the island is the coast of Kaoo ; while the most beautiful is that of Apoona. The former, says Captain King, " presents a prospect of the most barren and dreary kind, the whole country appearing to have undergone a total change, from the effects of some dreadful convulsion. The ground is everywhere covered with cinders, and intersected in many places with black streaks, which seem to mark the course of a lava that had flowed, not many years hack, from the mountain Roa to the shore. The southern boundary looks like the mere dregs of a volcano. The projecting head land is compos ed of broken and craggy rocks, piled irregularly on one another, and terminating in sharp points." The coast of Apoona, on the contrary, is extremely level, and so very beautiful, that the king has chosen it as one of his places of residence. The acclivity of the inland parts is gentle; it is everywhere adorned with cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, and exhibits the most striking appearances of culti vation and fertility.
With the exception, indeed, of the barren, rocky, and mountain tracts, the whole island is found to be remark ably rich ; and no spot susceptible of improvement has been left unemployed. The chief productions are cocoa nut and bread-fruit trees, yams, sweet potatoes, plantains, the tarrow or eddy root, and sugar canes of an amazing luxuriance. In the manner they manage and arrange their
grounds, the natives display. considerable taste. Each class of plants is kept separate, and is either cultivated in neat rows, or formed into groves; while the fences, which are made of stone, are elegantly concealed by sugar canes, thus forming one of the most beautiful ob jects on which the eye can rest. Cattle is totally unknown, so that no portion of the soil is appropriated to pasture. No quadrupeds of any kind, indeed, except of a very un profitable dogs and rats, of which the first is the most common,—have been discovered here. The food of the islanders consists of the vegetable productions already specified, and fish, which are very abundant in every quarter of the coast. People of rank, however, regard the flesh of the wild boar, and of dogs, as a most deliciouF morsel.
The natives of Owhyhee are of a dark complexion, but their features are pleasing. The men are above the mid dle size, active, and stout ; the women, some of whom are handsome, are in general, however, rather masculine, and not remarkable for delicacy, either of sentiment or de meanour. Like the other natives of Polynesia, the Owhy beans tattoo their bodies, and the females, even the tip of the tongue. Their nose is always spread at the point, owing, perhaps, to their mode of salutation, in which they press their noses together. The dress of both sexes is nearly the same,—cloth of various kinds, which the wo men wear loosely about them, like wrappers, while the men pass it between the legs, and fasten it to the loins. The more dignified, both men and women, make use of a great variety of ornaments, on which, though some of them are sufficiently grotesque, they seem to set a very high value. With all their inelegancies and peculiarities, however, they are a superior race of people, devoid of the grossness and ignorance which generally characterize sa vage life. Captain King represents them as mild and af fectionate; and it is allowed on all hands that the death of Captain Cook, of which, in the life of that celebrated per son, we have already given an account, did not result from any inherent ferocity in the inhabitants, hut from a sud den impulse of undeserved resentment. Their inquisitive turn of mind prompts them anxiously to acquire something new from the various vessels which visit their island. Several Europeans having settled among them, they have thus begun to exhibit some traits of civilized society; they have made no inconsiderable progress in agriculture and manufactures; and though they still continue to sacri fice human victims, they do not eat their flesh, like the natives of the neighbouring islands.