fell down ill excruciating tortures. On examining them ſeveral holes appeared to have been burned in their clothes which were of flannel: and in various parts of their bodies there were ſmall wounds, as if made with a hot iron of the ſize of a ſixpenny piece. I immediately ordered ſome of the crew to perform the operation of the Otahiteans, called Roro mee[1], which cauſed a conſiderable abatement of their pains, but ſeveral days elapſed before they were perfectly recovered. The other ball ſtruck the funnel of the cabooſe, made an exploſion equal to that of a ſwivel gun, and burned ſeveral holes in the mizen-ſtay-ſail and main-ſail which were handed. At the height of it the barometer was 28°. The alarm which we may be ſuppoſed to have experienced during the whirlwind, was not allayed by the noiſe of the birds, who, not conſidering the ſhip to be a place of ſafety, as is the caſe in common gales, appeared, by the violence of their ſhrieks and the irregularity of their flight, to be ſenſible of the danger: for as the ſquall approached them numbers plunged into the ſea, to avoid it; while thoſe who could not eſcape its influence, were whirled in a ſpiral manner out of ſight in an inſtant. It very fortunately reached us only within two cables length of each beam, and ſo paſſed a-head of the ſhip to the North. From our firſt ſeeing, to our loſing
- ↑ Roro mee. It conſiſts in graſping the fleſhy parts of the body, legs, and arms, and working it with the fingers.
