CHAP. VII.

FRIENDLY RECEPTION AT TONGATABOO.—MANNER OF DISTRIBUTING A BAKED HOG AND KAVA TO POULAHO’S ATTENDANTS.—THE OBSERVATORY, &C. ERECTED.—THE VILLAGE WHERE THE CHIEFS RESIDE, AND THE ADJOINING COUNTRY, DESCRIBED.—INTERVIEWS WITH MAREEWAGEE AND TOOBOU, AND THE KING’S SON.—A GRAND HAIVA, OR ENTERTAINMENT OF SONGS AND DANCES, GIVEN BY MAREEWAGEE.—EXHIBITION OF FIREWORKS.—MANNER OF WRESTLING AND BOXING.—DISTRIBUTION OF THE CATTLE.—THEFTS COMMITTED BY THE NATIVES.—POULAHO, AND THE OTHER CHIEFS, CONFINED ON THAT ACCOUNT.—POULAHO’S PRESENT, AND HAIVA.

Soon after we had anchored, having first dined, I landed, accompanied by Omai, and some of the officers. We found the king waiting for us upon the beach. He immediately conducted us to a small neat house, situated a little within the skirts of the woods, with a fine large area before it. This house, he told me, was at my service, during our stay at the island; and a better situation we could not wish for.

We had not been long in the house, before a pretty large circle of the natives were assembled before us, and seated upon the area. A root of the kava plant being brought, and laid down before the king, he ordered it to be split into pieces, and distributed to several people of both sexes, who began the operation of chewing it; and a bowl of their favourite liquor was soon prepared. In the mean time, a baked hog, and two baskets of baked yams, were produced, and afterward divided into ten portions. These portions were then given to certain people present; but how many were to share in each, I could not tell. One of them, I observed, was bestowed upon the king’s brother; and one remained undisposed of, which, I judged, was for the king himself, as it was a choice bit. The liquor was next served out; but Poulaho seemed to give no directions about it. The first cup was brought to him, which he ordered to be given to one who sat near him. The second was also brought to him, and this he kept. The third was given to me; but their manner of brewing having quenched my thirst, it became Omai’s property. The rest of the liquor was distributed to different people, by direction of the man who had the management of it. One of the cups being carried to the king’s brother, he retired with this, and with his mess of victuals. Some others also quitted the circle with their portions; and the reason was, they could neither eat nor drink in the royal presence; but there were others present, of a much inferior rank, of both sexes, who did both. Soon after, most of them withdrew, carrying with them what they had not ate of their share of the feast.

I observed, that not a fourth part of the company had tasted either the victuals or the drink; those who partook of the former, I supposed to be of the king’s household. The servants who distributed the baked meat, and the kava, always delivered it out of their hand sitting, not only to the king, but to every other person. It is worthy of remark, though this was the first time of our landing, and a great many people were present who had never seen us before, yet no one was troublesome; but the greatest good order was preserved throughout the whole assembly.

Before I returned on board, I went in search of a watering place, and was conducted to some ponds, or rather holes, containing fresh water, as they were pleased to call it. The contents of one of these, indeed, were tolerable; but it was at some distance inland, and the supply to be got from it was very inconsiderable. Being informed that the little island of Pangimodoo, near which the ships lay, could better furnish this necessary article, I went over to it next morning, and was so fortunate as to find there a small pool, that had rather fresher water than any we had met with amongst these islands. The pool being very dirty, I ordered it to be cleaned; and here it was that we watered the ships.

As I intended to make some stay at Tongataboo, we pitched a tent, in the forenoon, just by the house which Poulaho had assigned for our use. The horses, cattle, and sheep, were afterward landed, and a party of marines, with their officer, stationed there as a guard. The observatory was then set up, at a small distance from the other tent; and Mr. King resided on shore, to attend the observations, and to superintend the several operations necessary to be conducted there. For the sails were carried thither, to be repaired; a party was employed in cutting wood for fuel, and plank for the use of the ships; and the gunners of both were ordered to remain upon the spot, to conduct the traffic with the natives, who thronged from every part of the island, with hogs, yams, cocoa-nuts, and other articles of their produce. In a short time, our land post was like a fair, and the ships were so crowded with visitors, that we had hardly room to stir upon the decks.

Feenou had taken up his residence in our neighbourhood; but he was no longer the leading man. However, we still found him to be a person of consequence, and we had daily proofs of his opulence and liberality, by the continuance of his valuable presents. But the king was equally attentive in this respect; for scarcely a day passed, without receiving from him some considerable donation. We now heard, that there were other great men of the island, whom we had not as yet seen. Otago and Toobou, in particular mentioned a person named Mareewagee, who, they said, was of the first consequence in the place, and held in great veneration; nay, if Omai did not misunderstand them, superior even to Poulaho, to whom he was related; but, being old, lived in retirement; and, therefore, would not visit us. Some of the natives even hinted that he was too great a man to confer that honour upon us. This account exciting my curiosity, I this day mentioned to Poulaho, that I was very desirous of waiting upon Mareewagee; and he readily agreed to accompany me to the place of his residence, the next morning.

Accordingly we set out pretty early in the pinnace; and Captain Clerke joined me in one of his own boats. We proceeded round, that is, to the eastward of the little isles that form the harbour, and then turning to the south, according to Poulaho’s directions, entered a spacious bay or inlet, up which we rowed about a league, and landed amidst a considerable number of people, who received us with a sort of acclamation, not unlike our huzzaing. They immediately separated, to let Poulaho pass, who took us into a small inclosure, and shifted the piece of cloth he wore, for a new piece, neatly folded, that was carried by a young man. An old woman assisted in dressing him, and put a mat over his cloth, as we supposed, to prevent its being dirtied when he sat down. On our now asking him where Mareewagee was, to our great surprize, he said, he had gone from the place to the ship, just before we arrived. However, he desired us to walk with him to a malaee, or house of public resort, which stood about half a mile up the country; but when we came to a large area before it, he sat down in the path, and desired us to walk up to the house. We did so, and seated ourselves in front, while the crowd that followed us filled up the rest of the space. After sitting a little while, we repeated our inquiries, by means of Omai, whether we were to see Mareewagee? But receiving no satisfactory information, and suspecting that the old chief was purposely concealed from us, we went back to our boats, much piqued at our disappointment; and when I got on board, I found that no such person had been there. It afterward appeared, that, in this affair, we had laboured under some gross mistakes, and that our interpreter Omai had either been misinformed, or, which is more likely, had misunderstood what was told him about the great man, on whose account we had made this excursion.

The place we went to was a village most delightfully situated on the bank of the inlet, where all or most of the principal persons of the island reside; each having his house in the midst of a small plantation, with lesser houses, and offices for servants. These plantations are neatly fenced round; and, for the most part, have only one entrance. This is by a door, fastened on the inside by a prop of wood; so that a person has to knock, before he can get admittance. Public roads, and narrow lanes, lie between each plantation; so that no one trespasseth upon another. Great part of some of these inclosures is laid out in grass-plots, and planted with such things as seem more for ornament than use. But hardly any where without the kava plant, from which they make their favourite liquor. Every article of the vegetable produce of the island, abounded in others of these plantations; but these, I observed, are not the residence of people of the first rank. There are some large houses near the public roads, with spacious smooth grass-plots before them, and uninclosed. These, I was told, belonged to the king; and probably, they are the places where their public assemblies are held. It was to one of these houses, as I have already mentioned, that we were conducted, soon after our landing at this place.

About noon, the next day, this Mareewagee, of whom we had heard so much, actually came to the neighbourhood of our post on shore; and, with him, a very considerable number of people of all ranks. I was informed, that he had taken this trouble, on purpose to give me an opportunity of waiting upon him; having probably, heard of the displeasure I had shown, on my disappointment the day before. In the afternoon, a party of us, accompanied by Feenou, landed to pay him a visit. We found a person sitting under a large tree, near the shore, a little to the right of the tent. A piece of cloth, at least forty yards long, was spread before him, round which a great number of people of both sexes were seated. It was natural to suppose, that this was the great man; but we were undeceived by Feenou; who informed us, that another, who sat on a piece of mat, a little way from this chief, to the right hand, was Mareewagee, and he introduced us to him, who received us very kindly, and desired us to sit down by him. The person who sat under the tree, fronting us was called Toobou; and when I have occasion to speak of him afterward, I shall call him old Toobou, to distinguish him from his namesake, Captain Furneaux’s friend. Both he and Mareewagee had a venerable appearance. The latter is a slender man, and from his appearance, seems to be considerably above threescore years of age. The former is rather corpulent, and almost blind with a disorder of his eyes; though not so old.

Not expecting to meet with two chiefs, on this occasion, I had only brought on shore a present for one. This I now found myself under a necessity of dividing between them; but it happened to be pretty considerable, and both of them seemed satisfied. After this, we entertained them for about an hour with the performance of two French horns, and a drum. But they seemed most pleased with the firing off a pistol, which Captain Clerke had in his pocket. Before I took my leave, the large piece of cloth was rolled up, and, with a few cocoa-nuts, presented to me.

The next morning, old Toobou returned my visit on board the ship. He also visited Captain Clerke; and if the present we made to him, the evening before, was scanty, the deficiency was now made up. During this time, Mareewagee visited our people ashore; and Mr. King showed to him every thing we had there. He viewed the cattle with great admiration; and the cross-cut saw fixed his attention for some time.

Toward noon Poulaho returned from the place where we had left him two days before, and brought with him his son, a youth about twelve years of age. I had his company at dinner; but the son, though present, was not allowed to sit down with him. It was very convenient to have him for my guest. For when he was present, which was generally the case while we staid here, every other native was excluded from the table, and but few of them would remain in the cabin. Whereas, if by chance it happened that neither he nor Feenou were on board, the inferior chiefs would be very importunate to be of our dining-party, or to be admitted into the cabin at that time; and then we were so crowded, that we could not sit down to a meal with any satisfaction. The king was very soon reconciled to our manner of cookery. But still I believe he dined thus frequently with me, more for the sake of what we gave him to drink, than for what we set before him to eat. For he had taken a liking to our wine, could empty his bottle as well as most men, and was as cheerful over it. He now fixed his residence at the house, or Malaee, by our tent; and there he entertained our people this evening with a dance. To the surprise of every body, the unwieldy Poulaho endeavoured to vie with others in that active amusement.

In the morning of the 15th, I received a message from old Toobou that he wanted to see me ashore. Accordingly Omai and I went to wait upon him. We found him, like an ancient patriarch, seated under the shade of a tree, with a large piece of a cloth made in the island, spread out at full length before him, and a number of respectably looking people sitting round it. He desired us to place ourselves by him; and then he told Omai that the cloth, together with a piece of red feathers, and about a dozen cocoa-nuts, were his present to me. I thanked him for the favour, and desired he would go on board with me, as I had nothing on shore to give him in return.

Omai now left me, being sent for by Poulaho; and, soon after, Feenou came and acquainted me that young Futtafaihe, Poulaho’s son, desired to see me. I obeyed the summons, and found the prince and Omai sitting under a large canopy of the finer sort of cloth, with a piece of the coarser sort spread under them and before them, that was seventy-six yards long, and seven and a half broad. On one side was a large old boar, and on the other side a heap of cocoa-nuts. A number of people were seated round the cloth; and, amongst them, I observed Mareewagee and others of the first rank. I was desired to sit down by the prince, and then Omai informed me that he had been instructed by the king to tell me, that as he and I were friends, he hoped that his son might be joined in this friendship; and that, as a token of my consent, I would accept of his present. I very readily agreed to the proposal; and it being now dinner-time, I invited them all on board.

Accordingly, the young prince, Mareewagee, old Toobou, three or four inferior chiefs, and two respectable old ladies of the first rank, accompanied me. Mareewagee was dressed in a new piece of cloth, on the skirts of which were fixed six pretty large patches of red feathers. This dress seemed to have been made on purpose for this visit; for, as soon as he got on board, he put it off, and presented it to me; having, I guess, heard that it would be acceptable on account of the feathers. Every one of my visitors received from me such presents as I had reason to believe they were highly satisfied with. When dinner came upon table, not one of them would sit down or eat a bit of any thing that was served up. On expressing my surprize at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is forbidden. Why they were laid under such restraints at present was not explained. Dinner being over, and, having gratified their curiosity by showing to them every part of the ship, I then conducted them ashore.

As soon as the boat reached the beach, Feenou and some others instantly stepped out. Young Futtafaihe following them, was called back by Mareewagee, who now paid the heir-apparent the same obeisance, and in the same manner that I had seen it paid to the king. And when old Toobou, and one of the old ladies had shown him the same marks of respect, he was suffered to land. This ceremony being over, the old people stepped from my boat into a canoe that was waiting to carry them to their place of abode.

I was not sorry to be present on this occasion, as I was thus furnished with the most unequivocal proofs of the supreme dignity of Poulaho and his son over the other principal chiefs. Indeed, by this time I had acquired some certain information about the relative situations of the several great men, whose names have been so often mentioned. I now knew that Mareewagee and old Toobou were brothers. Both of them were men of great property in the island, and seemed to be in high estimation with the people; the former in particular had the very honourable appellation given to him, by every body, of Motooa Tonga; that is to say, Father of Tonga, or of his country. The nature of his relationship to the king was also no longer a secret to us; for we now understood that he was his father-in-law, Poulaho having married one of his daughters, by whom he had this son; so that Mareewagee was the prince’s grandfather. Poulaho’s appearance having satisfied us that we had been under a mistake in considering Feenou as the sovereign of these islands, we had been at first much puzzled about his real rank; but that was by this time ascertained. Feenou was one of Mareewagee’s sons; and Tooboueitoa was another.

On my landing, I found the king in the house adjoining to our tent, along with our people who resided on shore. The moment I got to him, he bestowed upon me a present of a large hog and a quantity of yams. About the dusk of the evening a number of men came, and having sat down in a round group, began to sing in concert with the music of bomboo drums, which were placed in the centre. [185] There were three long ones and two short. With these they struck the ground end-ways as before described. There were two others which lay on the ground, side by side, and one of them was split or shivered; on these a man kept beating with two small sticks. They sung three songs while I staid; and I was told, that after I left them the entertainment lasted till ten o’clock. They burnt the leaves of the wharra palm for a light; which is the only thing I ever saw them make use of for this purpose.

While I was passing the day in attendance on these great men, Mr. Anderson, with some others, made an excursion into the country, which furnished him with the following remarks: “To the westward of the tent, the country is totally uncultivated for near two miles, though quite covered with trees and bushes in a natural state, growing with the greatest vigour. Beyond this is a pretty large plain, on which are some cocoa-trees, and a few small plantations that appear to have been lately made; and seemingly on ground that has never been cultivated before. Near the creek which runs to the westward of the tent the land is quite flat, and partly overflowed by the sea every tide. When that retires, the surface is seen to be composed of coral rock, with holes of yellowish mud scattered up and down; and toward the edges, where it is a little firmer, are innumerable little openings, from which issue as many small crabs of two or three different sorts, which swarm upon the spot as flies upon a carcase; but are so nimble that, on being approached, they disappear in an instant, and baffle even the natives to catch any of them.

“At this place is a work of art, which shows that these people are capable of some design and perseverance when they mean to accomplish any thing. This work begins, on one side, as a narrow causeway, which, becoming gradually broader, rises with a gentle ascent to the height of ten feet, where it is five paces broad, and the whole length seventy-four paces. Joined to this is a sort of circus, whose diameter is thirty paces, and not above a foot or two higher than the causeway that joins it, with some trees planted in the middle. On the opposite side, another causeway of the same sort descends; but this is not above forty paces long, and is partly in ruin. The whole is built with large coral stones, with earth on the surface, which is quite overgrown with low trees and shrubs; and, from its decaying in several places, seems to be of no modern date. Whatever may have been its use formerly, it seems to be of none now; and all that we could learn of it from the natives was, that it belonged to Poulaho, and is called Etchee.”

On the 16th, in the morning, after visiting the several works now carrying on ashore, Mr. Gore and I took a walk into the country; in the course of which nothing remarkable appeared, but our having opportunities of seeing the whole process of making cloth, which is the principal manufacture of these islands as well as of many others in this ocean. In the narrative of my first voyage [186] , a minute description is given of this operation as performed at Otaheite; but the process here differing in some particulars, it may be worth while to give the following account of it.

The manufacturers, who are females, take the slender stalks or trunks of the paper-mulberry, which they cultivate for that purpose, and which seldom grows more than six or seven feet in height, and about four fingers in thickness. From these they strip the bark, and scrape off the outer rind with a muscle-shell. The bark is then rolled up to take off the convexity which it had round the stalk, and macerated in water for some time (they say a night.) After this it is laid across the trunk of a small tree squared, and beaten with a square wooden instrument about a foot long, full of coarse grooves on all sides; but sometimes with one that is plain. According to the size of the bark, a piece is soon produced; but the operation is often repeated by another hand, or it is folded several times and beat longer, which seems rather intended to close than to divide its texture. When this is sufficiently effected, it is spread out to dry; the pieces being from four to six or more feet in length, and half as broad. They are then given to another person who joins the pieces, by smearing part of them over with the viscous juice of a berry called tooo, which serves as a glue. Having been thus lengthened, they are laid over a large piece of wood, with a kind of stamp made of a fibrous substance pretty closely interwoven, placed beneath. They then take a bit of cloth and dip it in a juice expressed from the bark of a tree called kokka, which they rub briskly upon the piece that is making. This at once leaves a dull brown colour, and a dry gloss upon its surface; the stamp, at the same time, making a slight impression, that answers no other purpose that I could see but to make the several pieces that are glued together stick a little more firmly. In this manner they proceed, joining and staining by degrees, till they produce a piece of cloth of such length and breadth as they want; generally leaving a border of a foot broad at the sides, and longer at the ends, unstained. Throughout the whole, if any parts of the original pieces are too thin, or have holes, which is often the case, they glue spare bits upon them, till they become of an equal thickness. When they want to produce a black colour, they mix the soot procured from an oily nut called dooedooe, with the juice of the kokka, in different quantities, according to the proposed depth of the tinge. They say that the black sort of cloth, which is commonly most glazed, makes a cold dress, but the other a warm one; and, to obtain strength in both, they are always careful to join the small pieces lengthwise, which makes it impossible to tear the cloth in any direction but one.

On our return from the country we met with Feenou, and took him and another young chief on board to dinner. When our fare was set upon the table, neither of them would eat a bit, saying that they were taboo avy. But, after enquiring how the victuals had been dressed, having found that no avy (water) had been used in cooking a pig and some yams, they both sat down and made a very hearty meal; and, on being assured that there was no water in the wine, they drank of it also. From this we conjectured that, on some account or another, they were, at this time, forbidden to use water; or, which was more probable, they did not like the water we made use of, it being taken up out of one of their bathing places. This was not the only time of our meeting with people that were taboo avy; but for what reason we never could tell with any degree of certainty.

Next day, the 17th, was fixed upon by Mareewagee for giving a grand Haiva or entertainment, to which we were all invited. For this purpose, a large space had been cleared before the temporary hut of this chief, near our post, as an area where the performances were to be exhibited. In the morning great multitudes of the natives came in from the country, every one carrying a pole about six feet long upon his shoulder; and at each end of every pole a yam was suspended. These yams and poles were deposited on each side of the area, so as to form two large heaps, decorated with different sorts of small fish, and piled up to the greatest advantage. They were Mareewagee’s present to Captain Clerke and me; and it was hard to say whether the wood for fuel or the yams for food were of most value to us. As for the fish, they might serve to please the sight, but were very offensive to the smell, part of them having been kept two or three days to be presented to us on this occasion.

Every thing being thus prepared, about eleven o’clock they began to exhibit various dances, which they call mai. The music [187] consisted at first of seventy men as a chorus, who sat down; and amidst them were placed three instruments which we called drums, though very unlike them. They are large cylindrical pieces of wood, or trunks of trees from three to four feet long, some twice as thick as an ordinary sized man, and some smaller, hollowed entirely out, but close at both ends, and open only by a chink about three inches broad, running almost the whole length of the drums; by which opening, the rest of the wood is certainly hollowed, though the operation must be difficult. This instrument is called naffa; and, with the chink turned toward them, they sit and beat strongly upon it with two cylindrical pieces of hard wood about a foot long, and as thick as the wrist; by which means they produce a rude, though loud and powerful sound. They vary the strength and rate of their beating at different parts of the dance; and also change the tones by beating in the middle, or near the end of their drum.

The first dance consisted of four ranks, of twenty-four men each, holding in their hands a little, thin, light, wooden instrument, above two feet long, and in shape not unlike a small oblong paddle. With these, which are called pagge, they made a great many different motions; such as pointing them toward the ground on one side, at the same time inclining their bodies that way, from which they were shifted to the opposite side in the same manner; then passing them quickly from one hand to the other, and twirling them about very dexterously; with a variety of other manœuvres, all which were accompanied by corresponding attitudes of the body. Their motions were at first slow, but quickened as the drums beat faster; and they recited sentences, in a musical tone the whole time, which were answered by the chorus; but at the end of a short space they all joined, and finished with a shout.

After ceasing about two or three minutes, they began as before, and continued, with short intervals, above a quarter of an hour; when the rear rank dividing, shifted themselves very slowly round each end, and, meeting in the front, formed the first rank; the whole number continuing to recite the sentences as before. The other ranks did the same successively, till that which at first was the front, became the rear; and the evolution continued, in the same manner, till the last rank regained its first situation. They then began a much quicker dance (though slow at first), and sung for about ten minutes, when the whole body divided into two parts, retreated a little, and then approached, forming a sort of circular figure, which finished the dance; the drums being removed, and the chorus going off the field at the same time.

The second dance had only two drums, with forty men for a chorus; and the dancers, or rather actors, consisted of two ranks, the foremost having seventeen, and the other fifteen persons. Feenou was at their head, or in the middle of the front rank, which is the principal place in these cases. They danced and recited sentences, with some very short intervals, for about half an hour, sometimes quickly, sometimes more slowly, but with such a degree of exactness, as if all the motions were made by one man, which did them great credit. Near the close, the back rank divided, came round, and took the place of the front, which again resumed its situation, as in the first dance; and when they finished, the drums and chorus, as before, went off.

Three drums (which at least, took two, and sometimes three men to carry them) were now brought in; and seventy men sat down as a chorus to the third dance. This consisted of two ranks, of sixteen persons each, with young Toobou at their head, who was richly ornamented with a sort of garment covered with red feathers. These danced, sung, and twirled the pagge, as before; but in general, much quicker, and performed so well, that they had the constant applauses of the spectators. A motion that met with particular approbation, was one in which they held the face aside, as if ashamed, and the pagge before it. The back rank closed before the front one, and that again resumed its place, as in the two former dances; but then they began again, formed a triple row, divided, retreated to each end of the area, and left the greatest part of the ground clear. At that instant, two men entered very hastily, and exercised the clubs which they use in battle. They did this, by first twirling them in their hands, and making circular strokes before them with great force and quickness; but so skilfully managed, that, though standing quite close, they never interfered. They shifted their clubs from hand to hand, with great dexterity; and after continuing a little time, kneeled, and made different motions, tossing the clubs up in the air, which they caught as they fell, and then went off as hastily as they entered. Their heads were covered with pieces of white cloth, tied at the crown (almost like a night-cap) with a wreath of foliage round the forehead; but they had only very small pieces of white cloth tied about their waists; probably, that they might be cool, and free from every incumbrance or weight. A person with a spear, dressed like the former, then came in, and in the same hasty manner; looking about eagerly, as if in search of somebody to throw it at. He then ran hastily to one side of the crowd in the front, and put himself in a threatening attitude, as if he meant to strike with his spear at one of them, bending the knee a little, and trembling, as it were with rage. He continued in this manner only a few seconds, when he moved to the other side, and having stood in the same posture there, for the same short time, retreated from the ground, as fast as when he made his appearance. The dancers, who had divided into two parties, kept repeating something slowly all this while; and now advanced, and joined again, ending with universal applause. It should seem, that this dance was considered as one of their capital performances, if we might judge from some of the principal people being engaged in it. For one of the drums was beat by Futtafaihe, the brother of Poulaho, another by Feenou, and the third, which did not belong to the chorus, by Mareewagee himself, at the entrance of his hut.

The last dance had forty men, and two drums, as a chorus. It consisted of sixty men, who had not danced before, disposed in three rows, having twenty-four in front. But, before they began, we were entertained with a pretty long preliminary harangue, in which the whole body made responses to a single person who spoke. They recited sentences (perhaps verses) alternately with the chorus, and made many motions with the pagge, in a very brisk mode, which were all applauded with mareeai! and fyfogge! words expressing two different degrees of praise. They divided into two bodies, with their backs to each other; formed again, shifted their ranks as in the other dances; divided and retreated, making room for two champions, who exercised their clubs as before; and after them two others: the dancers, all the time, reciting slowly in turn with the chorus; after which they advanced, and finished.

These dances, if they can properly be called so, lasted from eleven till near three o’clock; and though they were doubtless intended particularly either in honour of us, or to show a specimen of their dexterity, vast numbers of their own people attended as spectators. Their numbers could not be computed exactly, on account of the inequality of the ground; but, by reckoning the inner circle, and the number in depth, which was between twenty and thirty in many places, we supposed that there must be near four thousand. At the same time, there were round the trading place at the tent, and straggling about, at least as many more; and some of us computed, that, at this time, there were not less than ten or twelve thousand people, in our neighbourhood; that is, within the compass of a quarter of a mile; drawn together, for the most part, by mere curiosity.

It is with regret I mention, that we could not understand what was spoken, while we were able to see what was acted, in these amusements. This, doubtless, would have afforded us much information, as to the genius and customs of these people, It was observable, that, though the spectators always approved of the various motions, when well made, a great share of the pleasure they received seemed to arise from the sentimental part, or what the performers delivered in their speeches. However, the mere acting part, independently of the sentences repeated, was well worth our notice, both with respect to the extensive plan on which it was executed, and to the various motions, as well as the exact unity, with which they were performed. But neither pencil nor pen can describe the numerous actions and motions, the singularity of which was not greater, than was the ease and gracefulness with which they were performed.

At night we were entertained with the bomai, or night dances, on a space before Feenou’s temporary habitation. They lasted about three hours; in which time we had about twelve of them performed, much after the same manner as those at Hapaee. But in two that were performed by women, a number of men came and formed a circle within theirs. And, in another, consisting of twenty-four men, there were a number of motions with the hands, that we had not seen before, and were highly applauded. The music was also once changed, in the course of the night; and in one of the dances, Feenou appeared at the head of fifty men who had performed at Hapaee, and he was well dressed with linen, a large piece of gauze, and some little pictures hung round his neck. But it was evident, after the diversions were closed, that we had put these poor people, or rather that they had put themselves, to much inconvenience. For being drawn together on this uninhabited part of their island, numbers of them were obliged to lie down and sleep under the bushes, by the side of a tree, or of a canoe; nay, many either lay down in the open air, which they are not fond of, or walked about all the night.

The whole of this entertainment was conducted with far better order, than could have been expected in so large an assembly. Amongst such a multitude, there must be a number of ill-disposed people; and we hourly experienced it. All our care and attention did not prevent their plundering us, in every quarter; and that, in the most daring and insolent manner. There was hardly any thing that they did not attempt to steal; and yet, as the crowd was always so great, I would not allow the sentries to fire, lest the innocent should suffer for the guilty. They once, at noon day, ventured to aim at taking an anchor from off the Discovery’s bows; and they would certainly have succeeded, if the flook had not hooked one of the chain-plates in lowering down the ship’s side, from which they could not disengage it by hand; and tackles were things they were unacquainted with. The only act of violence they were guilty of, was the breaking the shoulder-bone of one of our goats, so that she died soon after. This loss fell upon themselves, as she was one of those that I intended to leave upon the island; but of this, the person who did it, was ignorant.

Early in the morning of the 18th, an incident happened, that strongly marked one of their customs. A man got out of a canoe into the quarter gallery of the Resolution, and stole from thence a pewter bason. He was discovered, pursued, and brought along side the ship. On this occasion, three old women, who were in the canoe, made loud lamentations over the prisoner, beating their breasts and faces in a most violent manner, with the inside of their fists; and all this was done without shedding a tear. This mode of expressing grief is what occasions the mark which almost all this people bear on the face, over the cheek bones. The repeated blows which they inflict upon this part, abrade the skin, and make even the blood flow out in a considerable quantity; and when the wounds are recent, they look as if a hollow circle had been burnt in. On many occasions, they actually cut this part of the face with an instrument; in the same manner as the people of Otaheite cut their heads.

This day, I bestowed on Mareewagee some presents, in return for those we had received from him the day before; and as the entertainments which he had then exhibited for our amusement, called upon us to make some exhibition in our way, I ordered the party of marines to go through their exercise, on the spot where his dances had been performed; and, in the evening, played off some fire-works at the same place. Poulaho, with all the principal chiefs, and a great number of people, of all denominations, were present. The platoon firing, which was executed tolerably well, seemed to give them pleasure; but they were lost in astonishment when they beheld our water rockets. They paid but little attention to the fife and drum, or French horns, that played during the intervals. The king sat behind every body, because no one is allowed to sit behind him; and that his view might not be obstructed, nobody sat immediately before him; but a lane, as it were, was made by the people from him, quite down to the space allotted for the fire-works.

In expectation of this evening show, the circle of natives about our tent being pretty large, they engaged, the greatest part of the afternoon, in boxing and wrestling; the first of which exercises they call fangatooa and the second foohoo. When any of them chooses to wrestle, he gets up from one side of the ring, and crosses the ground in a sort of measured pace, clapping smartly on the elbow-joint of one arm, which is bent, and produces a hollow sound; that is reckoned the challenge. If no person comes out from the opposite side to engage him, he returns, in the same manner, and sits down; but sometimes stands clapping in the midst of the ground, to provoke someone to come out. If an opponent appear, they come together with marks of the greatest good-nature, generally smiling, and taking time to adjust the piece of cloth which is fastened round the waist. They then lay hold of each other by this girdle, with a hand on each side; and he who succeeds in drawing his antagonist to him, immediately tries to lift him upon his breast, and throw him upon his back; and if he be able to turn round with him two or three times, in that position, before he throws him, his dexterity never fails of procuring plaudits from the spectators. If they be more equally matched, they close soon, and endeavour to throw each other by entwining their legs, or lifting each other from the ground; in which struggles they show a prodigious exertion of strength, every muscle, as it were, being ready to burst with straining. When one is thrown, he immediately quits the field, but the victor sits down for a few seconds, then gets up, and goes to the side he came from, who proclaim the victory aloud, in a sentence delivered slowly, and in a musical cadence. After sitting a short space, he rises again and challenges; when sometimes several antagonists make their appearance; but he has the privilege of choosing which of them he pleases to wrestle with; and has likewise, the preference of challenging again, if he should throw his adversary, until he himself be vanquished; and then the opposite side sing the song of victory in favour of their champion. It also often happens, that five or six rise from each side, and challenge together; in which case, it is common to see three or four couple engaged on the field at once. But it is astonishing to see what temper they preserve in this exercise; for we observed no instances of their leaving the spot, with the least displeasure in their countenances. When they find, that they are so equally matched as not to be likely to throw each other, they leave off by mutual consent. And if the fall of one is not fair, or if it does not appear very clearly who has had the advantage, both sides sing the victory, and then they engage again. But no person, who has been vanquished, can engage with his conqueror a second time.

The boxers advance side-ways, changing the side at every pace, with one arm stretched fully out before, the other behind; and holding a piece of cord in one hand, which they wrap firmly about it, when they find an antagonist, or else have done so before they enter. This, I imagine, they do, to prevent a dislocation of the hand or fingers. Their blows are directed chiefly to the head; but sometimes to the sides; and are dealt out with great activity. They shift sides, and box equally well with both hands. But one of their favourite and most dexterous blows, is, to turn round on their heel, just as they have struck their antagonist, and to give him another very smart one with the other hand backward.

The boxing matches seldom last long; and the parties either leave off together, or one acknowledges his being beat. But they never sing the song of victory in these cases, unless one strikes his adversary to the ground; which shows, that, of the two, wrestling is their most approved diversion. Not only boys engage, in both the exercises, but frequently little girls box very obstinately for a short time. In all which cases, it doth not appear, that they ever consider it as the smallest disgrace to be vanquished; and the person overcome sits down, with as much indifference, as if he had never entered the lists. Some of our people ventured to contend with them in both exercises, but were always worsted; except in a few instances, where it appeared, that the fear they were in of offending us, contributed more to the victory, than the superiority of the person they engaged.

The cattle, which we had brought, and which were all on shore, however carefully guarded, I was sensible, run no small risk, when I considered the thievish disposition of many of the natives, and their dexterity in appropriating to themselves by stealth, what they saw no prospect of obtaining by fair means. For this reason, I thought it prudent to declare my intention of leaving behind me some of our animals; and even to make a distribution of them previously to my departure.

With this view, in the evening of the 19th, I assembled all the chiefs before our house, and my intended presents to them were marked out. To Poulaho, the king, I gave a young English bull and cow; to Mareewagee, a Cape ram, and two ewes; and to Feenou, a horse and a mare. As my design, to make such a distribution, had been made known the day before, most of the people in the neighbourhood were then present, I instructed Omai to tell them, that there were no such animals within many months sail of their island; that we had brought them, for their use, from that immense distance, at a vast trouble and expence; that, therefore, they must be careful not to kill any of them till they had multiplied to a numerous race; and, lastly, that they and their children ought to remember, that they had received them from the men of Britane. He also explained to them their several uses, and what else was necessary for them to know, or rather as far as he knew; for Omai was not very well versed in such things himself. As I intended that the above presents should remain with the other cattle, till we were ready to sail, I desired each of the chiefs to send a man or two to look after their respective animals, along with my people, in order that they might be better acquainted with them, and with the manner of treating them. The king and Feenou did so; but neither Mareewagee, nor any other person for him, took the least notice of the sheep afterward; nor did old Toobou attend at this meeting, though he was invited, and was in the neighbourhood. I had meant to give him the goats, viz. a ram and two ewes; which as he was so indifferent about them, I added to the king’s share.

It soon appeared, that some were dissatisfied with this allotment of our animals; for early next morning, one of our kids, and two turkey-cocks, were missing. I could not be so simple as to suppose, that this was merely an accidental loss; and I was determined to have them again. The first step I took was to seize on three canoes that happened to be alongside the ships. I then went ashore, and having found the king, his brother, Feenou, and some other chiefs, in the house that we occupied, I immediately put a guard over them, and gave them to understand, that they must remain under restraint, till not only the kid and the turkeys, but the other things, that had been stolen from us, at different times, were restored. They concealed, as well as they could, their feelings, on finding themselves prisoners; and, having assured me, that every thing should be restored, as I desired, sat down to drink their kava, seemingly much at their ease. It was not long before an axe, and an iron wedge, were brought to me. In the meantime, some armed natives began to gather behind the house; but, on a part of our guard marching against them, they dispersed; and I advised the chiefs to give orders, that no more should appear. Such orders were accordingly given by them, and they were obeyed. On asking them to go aboard with me to dinner, they readily consented. But some having afterward objected to the king’s going, he instantly rose up, and declared he would be the first man. Accordingly we came on board. I kept them there till near four o’clock, when I conducted them ashore; and soon after, the kid, and one of the turkey-cocks, were brought back. The other they said, should be restored the next morning. I believed this would happen, and released both them and the canoes.

After the chiefs had left us, I walked out with Omai, to observe how the people about us fared; for this was the time of their meals. I found that, in general, they were at short commons. Nor is this to be wondered at, since most of the yams, and other provisions which they brought with them, were sold to us; and they never thought of returning to their own habitations, while they could find any sort of subsistence in our neighbourhood. Our station was upon an uncultivated point of land; so that there were none of the islanders, who, properly, resided within half a mile of us. But even at this distance, the multitude of strangers being so great, one might have expected that every house would have been much crowded. It was quite otherwise. The families residing there were as much left to themselves as if there had not been a supernumerary visitor near them. All the strangers lived in little temporary sheds, or under trees and bushes; and the cocoa-trees were stripped of their branches to erect habitations for the chiefs.

In this walk we met with about half a dozen women in one place at supper. Two of the company, I observed, being fed by the others, on our asking the reason, they said taboo mattee. On farther inquiry we found that one of them had, two months before, washed the dead corpse of a chief; and that, on this account, she was not to handle any food for five months. The other had performed the same office to the corpse of another person of inferior rank, and was now under the same restriction, but not for so long a time. At another place hard by, we saw another woman fed; and we learnt that she had assisted in washing the corpse of the above mentioned chief.

Early the next morning the king came on board to invite me to an entertainment, which he proposed to give the same day. He had already been under the barber’s hands; his head being all besmeared with red pigment, in order to redden his hair, which was naturally of a dark brown colour. After breakfast I attended him to the shore; and we found his people very busy in two places, in the front of our area, fixing, in an upright and square position, thus, Illustration of four posts, four very long posts, near two feet from each other. The space between the posts was afterward filled up with yams; and as they went on filling it, they fastened pieces of sticks across, from post to post, at the distance of about every four feet, to prevent the posts from separating by the weight of the inclosed yams, and also to get up by. When the yams had reached the top of the first posts, they fastened others to them, and so continued till each pile was the height of thirty feet or upward. On the top of one they placed two baked hogs; and on the top of the other a living one; and another they tied by the legs half way up. It was matter of curiosity to observe with what facility and dispatch these two piles were raised. Had our seamen been ordered to execute such a work, they would have sworn that it could not be performed without carpenters; and the carpenters would have called to their aid a dozen different sorts of tools, and have expended, at least, a hundred weight of nails; and, after all, it would have employed them as many days as it did these people hours. But seamen, like most other amphibious animals, are always the most helpless on land. After they had completed these two piles, they made several other heaps of yams and bread-fruit on each side of the area; to which were added a turtle and a large quantity of excellent fish. All this, with a piece of cloth, a mat, and some red feathers, was the king’s present to me; and he seemed to pique himself on exceeding, as he really did, Feenou’s liberality, which I experienced at Hapaee.

About one o’clock they began the mai, or dances; the first of which was almost a copy of the first that was exhibited at Mareewagee’s entertainment. The second was conducted by Captain Furneaux’s Toobou, who, as we mentioned, had also danced there; and in this, four or five women were introduced, who went through the several parts with as much exactness as the men. Toward the end, the performers divided to leave room for two champions, who exercised their clubs as described on a former occasion. And, in the third dance, which was the last now presented, two more men with their clubs displayed their dexterity. The dances were succeeded by wrestling and boxing; and one man entered the lists with a sort of club made from the stem of a cocoa-leaf, which is firm and heavy, but could find no antagonist to engage him at so rough a sport. At night we had the bomai repeated; in which Poulaho himself danced, dressed in English manufacture. But neither these nor the dances in the day-time were so considerable, nor carried on with so much spirit, as Feenou’s or Mareewagee’s; and, therefore, there is less occasion to be more particular in our description of them.

In order to be present the whole time, I dined ashore. The king sat down with us; but he neither ate nor drank. I found that this was owing to the presence of a female, whom, at his desire, I had admitted to the dining party; and who, as we afterward understood, had superior rank to himself. As soon as this great personage had dined, she stepped up to the king, who put his hands to her feet, and then she retired. He immediately dipped his fingers into a glass of wine, and then received the obeisance of all her followers. This was the single instance we ever observed of his paying this mark of reverence to any person. At the king’s desire, I ordered some fire-works to be played off in the evening; but, unfortunately, being damaged, this exhibition did not. answer expectation.