the changes of the fky; now encouraging their hope by telling them that it was clear, and now alarming their fears by an account that it was hazey. 1769. June. At day-break they got up, and had the fatisfaction to fee Saturday 3. the fun rise, without a cloud. Mr. Banks then, wishing the obfervers, Mr. Gore and Mr. Monkhouse, fuccefs, repaired again to the island, that he might examine its produce, and get a fresh supply of provifions: he began by trading with the natives, for which purpose he took his ftation under a tree; and to keep them from preffing upon him in a crowd, he drew a circle round him, which he fuffered none of them to enter. About eight o'clock, he faw two canoes coming towards the place, and was given to understand by the people about him, that they belonged to TARRAO, the King of the island, who was coming to make him a vifit. As foon as the canoes came near the shore, the people made a lane from the beach to the trading-place, and his Majesty landed, with his fifter, whose name was NUNA; as they advanced towards the tree where Mr. Banks flood, he went out to meet them, and, with great formality, introduced them into the circle from which the other natives had been excluded. As it is the custom of these people to fit during all their conferences, Mr. Banks unwrapped a kind of Turban of Indian cloth, which he wore upon his head instead of a hat, and spreading it upon the ground, they all fat down upon it together. The royal prefent was then brought, which consisted of a hog and a dog, some bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and other articles of the like kind. Mr. Banks then dispatched a canoe to the obfervatory for his prefent, and the messengers foon returned with an adze, a shirt, and fome beads, which were prefented to his Majefty, and received with great fatisfaction. 1769. June, Saturday 3. Sunday 4. By this time, Tubourai Tamaide and Tomio joined them, from the obfervatory. Tomio faid, that she was related to Tarrao, and brought him a prefent of a long nail, at the fame time complimenting Nuna with a shirt. The first internal contact of the planet with the fun being over, Mr. Banks returned to the observatory, taking Tarrao, Nuna, and fome of their principal attendants, among whom were three very handfome young women, with him: he fhowed them the planet upon the fun, and endeavoured to make them understand that he and his companions had come from their own country on purpose to see it. Soon: after, Mr. Banks returned with them to the island, where he fpent the reft of the day in examining its produce, which he found to be much the fame with that of Otaheite. The people whom he faw there alfo exactly resembled the inhabitants of that island, and many of them were perfons whom he had feen upon it; so that all those whom he had dealt with, knew of what his trading articles confifted, and the value they bore. The next morning, having struck the tents, they fet out on their return, and arrived at the fort before night. The observation was made with equal fuccefs by the perfons whom I had fent to the eastward, and at the fort, there not being a cloud in the sky from the rifing to the setting of the fun, the whole paffage of the planet Venus over the fun's difk was obferved with great advantage by Mr. Green, Dr. Solander, and myself: Mr. Green's telescope and mine were of the fame magnifying power, but that of Dr. Solander was greater. We all faw an atmotfphere or dusky cloud round the body of the planet, which very much disturbed the times of contact, especially of the internal ones; and we differed from each other in our accounts of the times of the contacts contacts much more than might have been expected. According to Mr. Green, The firft external contact, or firft appearance of Venus Hours. Min. Sec. 9 25 42 Morning. Afternoon, The latitude of the obfervatory was found to be 17° 29′ 15′′; and the longitude 149° 32′ 30" W. of Greenwich. A more particular account will appear by the tables, for which the reader is referred to the Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. lxi. part 2. page 397 & feq. where they are illustrated by a cut. But if we had reafon to congratulate ourselves upon the fuccefs of our obfervation, we had fcarce lefs cause to regret the diligence with which that time had been improved by fome of our people to another purpose. While the attention of the officers was engroffed by the Tranfit of Venus, fome of the fhip's company broke into one of the store-rooms, and ftole a quantity of spike nails, amounting to no lefs than one hundred weight: this was a matter of public and ferious. concern; for these nails, if circulated by the people among the Indians, would do us irreparable injury, by reducing the value of iron, our ftaple commodity. One of the thieves was detected, but only feven nails were found in his cuftody.. He was punished with two dozen lashes, but would impeach none of his accomplices.. CHAP 1769. June. 1769. June. CHA P. XIV. The Ceremonies of an Indian Funeral particularly defcribed: General Obfervations on the Subject: A Character found among the Indians to which the Ancients paid great Veneration: A Robbery at the Fort, and its Confequences; with a Specimen of Indian Cookery, and various Incidents. ON N the 5th, we kept his Majesty's birth-day; for though it is the 4th, we were unwilling to celebrate it Monday 5. during the absence of the two parties who had been fent out to obferve the Tranfit. We had feveral of the Indian Chiefs at our entertainment, who drank his Majesty's health by the name of Kihiargo, which was the nearest imitation they could produce of King George, About this time died an old woman of fome rank, who was related to Tomio, which gave us an opportunity to fee how they disposed of the body, and confirmed us in our opinion that these people, contrary to the prefent custom of all other nations now known, never bury their dead. In the middle of a small fquare,, neatly railed in with bamboo, the awning of a canoe was raised upon two pofts, and under this the body was depofited upon fuch a frame as has before been defcribed: it was covered with fine cloth, and near it was placed bread-fruit, fifh, and other provifions: we fuppofed that the food was placed there for the spirit of the deceased, and confequently, that these Indians had some confused notion of a separate ftate; but upon our applying for further 1 1769. June. further information to Tubourai Tamaide, he told us, that What can have introduced among these people the custom of exposing their dead above ground, till the flesh is confumed by putrefaction, and then burying the bones, it is perhaps impoffible to guess; but it is remarkable, that Elian and Apollonius Rhodius impute a fimilar practice to the ancient inhabitants of Colchis, a country near Pontus in Afia, now called Mingrelia; except that among them this manner of difpofing of the dead did not extend to both fexes: the women they buried; but the men they wrapped in a hide, and hung up in the air by a chain. This practice among the Colchians is referred to a religious caufe. The principal objects of their worship were the Earth and the Air; and it is fuppofed that, in confequence of fome fuperftitious notion, they |