his obeisance in the usual way, saluting his sovereign's foot with his head and hands, retired out of the cabin *. The king had before told us, that this would happen; and it now ́appeared that Feenou could not even eat or drink in his royal presence.

At eight o'clock next morning we weighed and steered for Tongataboo, having a gentle breeze at north-east. About fourteen or fifteen sailing vessels belonging to the natives set out with us, but every one of them outran the ships considerably. Feenou was to have taken his passage in the Resolution, but preferred his own canoe; and put two men on board to 'conduct us to the best anchorage. We steered south by west by compass. At five in the afternoon we saw two small islands bearing west, about four leagues distant. Our pilots called the one Hoonga Hapaec, and the other Hoonga Tonga. They lie in the latitude of 20° 36'; and ten or eleven leagues from the west point of Annamooka, in the direction of south, 46° west. According to the account of the islanders on board, only five men reside upon Hoonga Hapaee; and Hoonga Tonga is uninhabited; but both of them abound with sea-fowl.

We continued the same course till two o'clock next morning, when, seeing some lights ahead, and not knowing whether they were on shore or on board the canoes, we hauled the wind, and made a short trip each way till daybreak. We then resumed our course to the south by west; and presently after saw several small islands before us, and Eooa and Tongataboo beyond them. We had at this time twenty-five fathoms water, over a bottom of broken coral and sand. The depth gradually decreased as we drew near the isles above mentioned, which lie ranged along the north-east side of Tongataboo. By the direction of our pilots we steered for the middle of it, and for the widest space between the small isles which we were to pass, having our boats ahead employed in sounding. We were insensibly drawn upon a large flat, upon which lay innumerable coral rocks of different depths, below the surface of the water. Notwithstanding all our care and attention to keep the ship clear of them, we could not prevent her from striking on one of these rocks: nor did the Discovery, though behind us, escape any better. Fortunately, neither of the ships stuck fast, nor received any damage. We could not get back without increasing the danger, as we had come in almost before the wind; nor could we cast anchor, but with the certainty of having our cables instantly cut in two by the rocks. We had no other resource but to proceed. To this, indeed, we were encouraged, not only by being told, but by seeing, that there was deeper water between us and the shore. However, that we might be better informed, the moment we found a spot where we could drop the anchor clear of rocks, we came to, and sent the masters with the boats to sound.

Soon after we had anchored, which was about noon, several of the inhabitants of Tongataboo came off in their canoes to the ships. These, as well as our pilots, assured us that we should find deep water farther in, and a bottom free from rocks. They were not mistaken; for about four o'clock the boats made the signal for having found good anchorage. Upon this we weighed, and stood in till dark, and then anchored in nine fathoms, having a fine, clear, sandy bottom. During the night we had some showers of rain; but toward the morning, the wind shifted to the south and south-east, and brought on fair weather. At daybreak we weighed, and working in to the shore, met with no obstructions but such as were visible and easily avoided. While we were plying up to the harbour, to which the natives directed us, the king kept sailing round us in his canoe. There were at the same time a great many small canoes about the ships: two of these, which could not get out of the way of his royal vessel, he ran quite over, with as little concern as if they had been bits of wood. Amongst many others who came on board the Resolution, was Otago, who had

• Marks of profound respect, very similar to those paid by natives of the Friendly Islands to their sovereign, are also paid to the principal chiefs, or Tamoles, of the Caroliue Islands, as appears from Father Cantova's account, here transcribed. "Lorsqu'un Tamole donne audience, il paroit assis sur une table élevée : les peuples s'inclinent devant lui jusqu'à terre; et du plus loin qu'ils arrivent, ils marchent, le corps tout courbé, et la tête presqu'entre les génoux, jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient auprès de sa

personne; alors ils s'asséyent à plate-terre; et, les yeux baissés, ils reçoivent ses ordres avec le plus profond respect. Quand le Tamole les congédie, ils se retirent, en se courbant de la même manière que quand ils sont venus, et ne se relèvent que lorsqu'ils sont hors de sa présence. Ses paroles sont autant d'oracles qu'on révère; on rend à ses ordres une obéissance aveugle; enfin, on lui baise les mains et les pieds quand on lui demande quelque grace.""Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuscs," tom. xv. p. 312, 313.

been so useful to me when I visited Tongataboo during my last voyage; and one Toobou, who at that time had attached himself to Captain Furneaux. Each of them brought a hog and some yams, as a testimony of his friendship; and I was not wanting on my part in making a suitable return. At length, about two in the afternoon, we arrived at our intended station. It was a very snug place, formed by the shore of Tongataboo on the south-east, and two small islands on the east and north-east. Here we anchored in ten fathoms water, over a bottom of oozy sand, distant from the shore one-third of a mile.

CHAPTER 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 kara 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 ships 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

man.

shifted the piece of cloth he wore, for a new piece, neatly folded, that was carried by a young 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 surprise, 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 malace, 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 afterwards 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 scated. 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 afterwards, 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

VOL. II.

I

deficiency was now made up. During this time, Mareewagee visited our people ashore ; and Mr. King showed to him everything 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 Fecnou 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 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 malace, by our tent; and there he entertained our people this evening with a dance. To the surprise of everybody, 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 respectable-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 Fattafaihe, 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 Marcewagee 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 anything that was served up. On expressing my surprise 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 Fattafaihe following them, was called back by Maree wagee, 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 canoc, that was waiting to carry them to their place of abode.