was again opened, and the dog taken out excellently baked, and we all agreed that he made a very good dish. The dogs which are here bred to be eaten, taste no animal food, but are kept wholly upon bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, yams, and other vegetables of the like kind: all the flesh and fish eaten by the inhabitants is dreffed in the fame way.

1769.

June.

Tuesday 20.

On the 21ft, we were vifited at the fort by a Chief, called Wednef. 21. ÓAMO, whom we had never seen before, and who was treated by the natives with uncommon refpect; he brought with him a boy about seven years old, and a young woman about fixteen: the boy was carried upon a man's back, which we confidered as a piece of state, for he was as well able to walk as any prefent. As foon as they were in fight, Oberea, and feveral other natives who were in the fort, went out to meet them, having firft uncovered their heads and bodies as low as the waist: as they came on, the fame ceremony was performed by all the natives who were without the fort. Uncovering the body, therefore, is in this country probably a mark of respect; and as all parts are here exposed with equal indifference, the ceremony of uncovering it from the waift downwards, which was performed by Oorattooa, might be nothing more than a different mode of compliment, adapted to perfons of a different rank. The Chief came into the tent,. but no entreaty could prevail upon the young woman to follow him, though she seemed to refuse contrary to her inclination: the natives without were indeed all very folicitous to prevent her; fometimes, when her refolution feemed to fail, almost using force: the boy also they restrained in the fame manner; but Dr. Solander happening to meet him at the gate, took him by the hand, and led him in before the people were aware of it: as foon, however, as those that were within faw him, they took care to have him fent out.

Thefe

1769. June.

Wednef. 21.

These circumstances having strongly 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, whofe 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 OU TOU, and who, as before has been obferved, was a minor. Whappai, Oamo, and Tootahah, were brothers: Whappai was the eldest, and Oamo the second; so 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 fhould 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 distinguished himself in a war. Oamo asked many questions concerning England and its inhabitants, by which he appeared to have great shrewdness and understanding.

С НА Р.

С НА Р. XV.

L

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.

ON

1769. June.

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 island, with a view to Monday 26. 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 district called OAHOUNUE, which is governed by АнIо, a young Chief, whom we had often feen at the tents, and who favoured us with his company to breakfast. Here alfo we found two other natives of our old acquaintance, TITUBO ALO and HooNA, who carried us to their houfes, 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 potfheard, which Mr. Banks found in looking narrowly about the spot. We met, however, with ORETTE, a Chief VOL. II. who

X

1769. June.

Monday 26.

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 shelter of a small island called BOOUROU, near which is another called TAAWIRRII; the breach in the reefs is here very large, but the fhelter for the fhips is not the beft.

Soon after we had examined this place, we took boat, and afked Tituboalo to go with us to the other side of the bay; but he refused, and advised us not to go, for he said the country there was inhabited by people who were not subject 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 ifthmus, at the bottom of the bay, that divides the island into two peninfulas, each of which is a district or government wholly independent of the other. From PortRoyal, where the ship was at anchor, the coaft 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 fhore is in general open to the fea; but in the laft it is covered by reefs of rocks, which form several good harbours, with safe 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 houfes, we faw feveral double canoes whose owners were well known to us, and who provided us with fupper and lodging; of which Mr. Banks was indebted for his fhare

June.

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

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 correfponding bay on the other fide. We then prepared to continue our rout for what Tituboalo called the other kingdom; he faid that the name of it was TIARRABOU, or OTAHEITE ETE; and that of the Chief who governed it, WAHEATUA: upon this occafion alfo, we learnt that the name of the peninfula where we had taken our station was OPOUREONU, OF OTAHEITE NUE. Our new affociate feemed to be now in better fpirits than he had been the day before; the people in Tiarrabou would not kill us, he said, but he affured us that we should be able to procure no victuals among them; and indeed we had feen no bread-fruit fince we fet 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, whofe father's name was PAHAIREDO, the ftealer of boats. Though thefe 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 greateft 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 saw only two people that we knew; neither did we obferve a fingle bead or ornament among them that had come from our ship, though we saw feveral things which had been brought from Europe. In one of the houses lay two twelve-pound fhot, one of which was marked with the broad arrow of England, though the people said they had them from the fhips that lay in Bougainville's harbour.