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 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, Nor is this in general, they were at short commons. 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, the 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 break CHAP. VIII. DESCRIBED. SOME OF THE OFFICERS PLUNDERED BY THE NATIVES. -A MONY. MANNER OF PASSING THE NIGHT. REMARKS ON PREPARATIONS AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, IMPER- ISLAND, AND ITS PRODUCTIONS. As s no more entertainments were to be expected, on either side, and the curiosity of the populace was by this time pretty well satisfied; on the day after Poulaho's haiva, most of them left us. We still, however, had thieves about us; and, encouraged by the negligence of our own people, we had continual instances of their depredations. Some of the officers, belonging to both ships, who had made an excursion into the interior parts of the island, without my leave, and, indeed, without my knowledge, returned this evening, after an absence of two days. They had taken with them their muskets, with the necessary ammunition, and several small articles of the favourite commodities; all which the natives had the dexterity to steal from them, in the course of their expedition. This affair was likely to be attended with inconvenient consequences. |