These circumstances having ftrongly excited our curiofity, we enquired who they were, and were informed, that Oamo was the husband of Oberea, though they had been a long time separated by mutual confent; and that the young woman and the boy were their children. We learnt alfo, that the boy, whose name was TERRIDIRI, was heir apparent to the fovereignty of the island, and that his fifter was intended for his wife, the marriage being deferred only till he should arrive at a proper age. The fovereign at this time was a fon of WHAPPAI, whofe name was Ourou, and who, as before has been obferved, was a minor. Whappai, Oamo, and Tootahah, were brothers: Whappai was the eldeft, and Oamo the fecond; fo that, Whappai having no child but Outou, Terridiri, the fon of his next brother Oamo, was heir to the fovereignty. It will, perhaps, feem ftrange that a boy should be fovereign during the life of his father; but, according to the custom of the country, a child fucceeds to a father's title and authority as foon as it is born: a regent is then elected, and the father of the new fovereign is generally continued in his authority, under that title, till his child is of age; but, at this time, the choice had fallen upon Tootahah, the uncle, in confequence of his having diftinguished himself in a war. Oamo asked many questions concerning England and its inhabitants, by which he appeared to have great fhrewdness and understanding.

CHAP.

CHA P. XV.

An Account of the Circumnavigation of the Island, and various Incidents that happened during the Expedition; with a Defcription of a Burying-place and Place of Worship, called a Morai.

N Monday the 26th, about three o'clock in the morning, I fet out in the pinnace, accompanied by Mr. Banks, to make the circuit of the ifland, with a view to fketch out the coaft and harbours. We took our route to the eastward, and about eight in the forenoon we went on fhore, in a diftrict called OAHOU NUE, which is governed by АHIO, a young Chief, whom we had often seen at the tents, and who favoured us with his company to breakfast. Here also we found two other natives of our old acquaintance, TITUBOALO and HOONA, who carried us to their houses, near which we faw the body of the old woman, at whofe funeral rites Mr. Banks had affifted, and which had been removed hither from the spot where it was firft depofited, this place having defcended from her by inheritance to Hoona, and it being neceffary on that account that it fhould lie here. We then proceeded on foot, the boat attending within call, to the harbour in which Mr. Bougainville lay, called OHIDEA, where the natives fhewed us the ground upon which his people pitched their tent, and the brook at which they watered, though no trace of them remained, except the holes where the poles of the tent had been fixed, and a small piece of potsheard, which Mr. Banks found in looking narrowly about the spot. We met, however, with ORETTE, a Chief

X 2

who

who was their principal friend, and whofe brother OUTORROU went away with them.

This harbour lies on the weft fide of a great bay, under fhelter of a small island called BOOUROU, near which is another called TAAWIRRII; the breach in the reefs is here very large, but the shelter for the fhips is not the best.

Soon after we had examined this place, we took boat, and asked Tituboalo to go with us to the other fide of the bay; but he refused, and advised us not to go, for he faid the country there was inhabited by people who were not fubject to Tootahah, and who would kill both him and us. Upon receiving this intelligence, we did not, as may be imagined, relinquish our enterprize; but we immediately loaded our pieces with ball: this was fo well understood by Tituboalo as a precaution which rendered us formidable, that he now confented to be of our party.

Having rowed till it was dark, we reached a low neck of land, or isthmus, at the bottom of the bay, that divides the island into two peninsulas, each of which is a district or government wholly independent of the other. From PortRoyal, where the ship was at anchor, the coast trends E. by S. and E.S. E. ten miles, then S. by E. and S. eleven miles to the isthmus. In the first direction, the shore is in general open to the fea; but in the laft it is covered by reefs of rocks, which form feveral good harbours, with fafe anchorage, in 16, 18, 20, and 24 fathom of water, with other conveniences. As we had not yet got into our enemy's country, we determined to fleep on fhore: we landed, and though we found but few houses, we faw feveral double canoes whofe owners were well known to us, and who provided us with fupper and lodging; of which Mr. Banks was indebted for his

fhare

share to Ooratooa, the lady who had paid him her compli- 1769. ments in fo fingular a manner at the fort.

June.

In the morning, we looked about the country, and found Tuesday 27. it to be a marshy flat, about two miles over, across which the natives haul their canoes to the corresponding bay on the other fide. We then prepared to continue our rout for what Tituboalo called the other kingdom; he said that the name of it was TIARRA BOU, or OTAHEITE ETE; and that of the Chief who governed it, WA HEATUA: upon this occasion also, we learnt that the name of the peninsula where we had taken our station was OPOUREONU, or OTAHEITE NUE. Our new afsociate seemed to be now in better spirits than he had been the day before; the people in Tiarrabou would not kill us, he faid, but he affured us that we should be able to procure no victuals among them; and indeed we had seen mo bread-fruit fince we set out.

After rowing a few miles, we landed in a district, which was the dominion of a Chief called MARAITATA, the burying-place of men; whose father's name was PAHAIREDO, the ftealer of boats. Though these names feemed to favour the account that had been given by Tituboalo, we foon found that it was not true. Both the father and the fon received us with the greatest civility, gave us provifions, and, after fome delay, fold us a very large hog for a hatchet. A crowd foon gathered round us, but we faw only two people that we knew; neither did we obferve a fingle bead or ornament among them that had come from our fhip, though we saw feveral things which had been brought from Europe. In one of the houses lay two twelve-pound shot, one of which was marked with the broad arrow of England, though the people faid they had them from the ships that lay in Bougainville's harbour.

We

1769. June.

We proceeded on foot till we came to the district which was immediately under the government of the principal Tuesday 27. Chief, or King of the peninsula, Waheatua. Waheatua had a fon, but whether, according to the custom of Opoureonu, he administered the government as regent, or in his own right, is uncertain. This district confifts of a large and fertile plain, watered by a river fo wide, that we were obliged to ferry over it in a canoe; our Indian train, however, chofe to fwim, and took to the water with the fame facility as a pack of hounds. In this place we saw no house that appeared to be inhabited, but the ruins of many, that had been very large. We proceeded along the shore, which forms a bay, called OAITIPEHA, and at last we found the Chief fitting near some pretty canoe awnings, under which, we fuppofed, he and his attendants flept. He was a thin old man, with a very white head and beard, and had with him a comely woman, about five and twenty years old, whose name was TOUDIDDE. We had often heard the name of this woman, and, from report and obfervation, we had reason to think that fhe was the OBEREA of this peninfula. From this place, between which and the isthmus there are other harbours, formed by the reefs that lie along the fhore, where shipping may lie in perfect fecurity, and from whence the land trends S. S. E. and S. to the S. E. part of the island, we were accompanied by TEAREE, the fon of Waheatua, of whom we had purchased a hog, and the country we paffed through appeared to be more cultivated than any we had feen in other parts of the island: the brooks were every where banked into narrow channels with ftone, and the fhore had alfo a facing of flone, where it was washed by the sea. The houses were neither large nor numerous, but the canoes that were hauled up along the fhore were almoft innumerable, and superior to any that we had feen before, both in fize and

make;