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1769.

June.

that, upon this occafion, Oberea, and Oamo, who then administered the government for his son, had fled to the mountains; and that the conquerors burnt all the houses, which Thursday 29. were very large, and carried away the hogs and what other animals they found. We learnt also, that the turkey and goose, which we had feen when we were with Mathiabo, the ftealer of cloaks, were among the fpoils; this accounted for their being found among people with whom the Dolphin had little or no communication; and upon mentioning the jaw-bones, which we had seen hanging from a board in a long house, we were told, that they also had been carried away as trophies, the people here carrying away the jawbones of their enemies, as the Indians of North America do the fcalps.

After having thus gratified our curiofity, we returned to our quarters, where we paffed the night in perfect fecurity and quiet. By the next evening we arrived at Atahourou, Friday 30. the refidence of our friend Tootahah, where, the last time we paffed the night under his protection, we had been obliged to leave the best part of our clothes behind us. This adventure, however, feemed now to be forgotten on both fides. Our friends received us with great pleasure, and gave us a good fupper and a good lodging, where we fuffered neither lofs nor disturbance.

The next day, Saturday, July the ift, we got back to our fort at Matavai, having found the circuit of the island, including both peninsulas, to be about thirty leagues. Upon our complaining of the want of bread-fruit, we were told, that the produce of the last seafon was nearly exhausted; and that what was feen fprouting upon the trees, would not be fit to use in lefs than three months; this accounted for our having been able to procure fo little of it in our route.

July.

Saturday 1.

1769.

July.

Saturday 1.

While the bread-fruit is ripening upon the flats, the inhabitants are supplied in fome measure from the trees which they have planted upon the hills to preserve a fucceffion; but the quantity is not fufficient to prevent fcarcity: they live therefore upon the four paste which they call Mahie, upon wild plantains, and ahee-nuts, which at this time are in perfection. How it happened that the Dolphin, which was here at this feafon, found fuch plenty of bread-fruit upon the trees, I cannot tell, except the feafon in which they ripen varies.

At our return, our Indian friends crouded about us, and none of them came empty-handed. Though I had determined to reftore the canoes which had been detained to their owners, it had not yet been done; but I now released them as they were applied for. Upon this occafion I could not but remark with concern, that thefe people were capable of practising petty frauds against each other, with a deliberate dishonesty, which gave me a much worse opinion of them than I had ever entertained from the 'robberies they committed under the ftrong temptation to which a sudden opportunity of enriching themfelves with the ineftimable metal and manufactures of Europe expofed them.

Among others who applied to me for the release of a canoe, was one POTATTOW, a man of fome confequence, well known to us all. I confented, supposing the vessel to be his own, or that he applied on the behalf of a friend: he went immediately to the beach, and took poffeffion of one of the boats, which, with the affiftance of his people, he began to carry of. Upon this, however, it was eagerly claimed by the right owners, who, fupported by the other Indians, clamourously reproached him for invading their property, and prepared to take the canoe from him by force. Upon this, he

defired

defired to be heard, and told them, that the canoe did, indeed, once belong to those who claimed it; but that I, having seized it as a forfeit, had fold it to him for a pig. This filenced the clamour, the owners, knowing that from my power there was no appeal, acquiefced; and Potattow would have carried off his prize, if the dispute had not fortunately been overheard by fome of our people who reported it to me. I gave orders immediately that the Indians fhould be undeceived; upon which the right owners took poffeffion of their canoe, and Potattow was so conscious of his guilt, that neither he nor his wife, who was privy to his knavery, could look us in the face for fome time afterwards.

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VOL. II.

Z

CHAP.

1769. July.

Monday 3.

CHA P. XVI.

An Expedition of Mr. Banks to trace the River: Marks of fubterraneous Fire: Preparations for leaving the Island: An Account of Tupia.

N the 3d, Mr. Banks set out early in the morning, with some Indian guides, to trace our river

ON Mr. Banke fetout ce our up the valley

from which it iffues, and examine how far it's banks were inhabited. For about fix miles they met with houses, not far distant from each other, on each fide of the river, and the valley was every where about four hundred yards wide from the foot of the hill on one fide, to the foot of that on the other; but they were now fhewn a house which they were told was the last that they would fee. When they came up to it, the mafter of it offered them refreshments of cocoanuts and other fruits, of which they accepted; after a short ftay, they walked forward for a confiderable time; in bad way it is not easy to compute distances, but they imagined that they had walked about fix miles farther, following the course of the river, when they frequently passed under vaults, formed by fragments of the rock, in which they were told people who were benighted frequently paffed the night. Soon after they found the river banked by fteep rocks, from which a cascade, falling with great violence, formed a pool, fo fteep, that the Indians faid they could not pass it. They feemed, indeed, not much to be acquainted with the valley beyond this place, their bufinefs lying chiefly upon the de

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clivity of the rocks on each fide, and the plains which extended on their fummits, where they found plenty of a wild plantain, which they called Vae. The way up these rocks from the banks of the river was in every refpect dreadful ; the fides were nearly perpendicular, and in fome places one hundred feet high; they were also rendered exceeding flippery by the water of innumerable fprings which iffued from the fissures on the surface: yet up these precipices a way was to be traced by a fucceffion of long pieces of the bark of the Hibiscus tiliaceus, which ferved as a rope for the climber to take hold of, and affifted him in scrambling from one ledge to another, though upon these ledges there was footing only for an Indian or a goat. One of these ropes was nearly thirty feet in length, and their guides offered to assist them in mounting this pass, but recommended another at a little diftance lower down, as lefs difficult and dangerous. They took a view of this "better way," but found it fo bad that they did not chuse to attempt it, as there was nothing at the top to reward their toil and hazard but a grove of the wild plantain or Vae tree, which they had often seen before.

During this excursion, Mr. Banks had an excellent opportunity to examine the rocks, which were almost every where naked, for minerals; but he found not the least appearance of any. The ftones every where, like those of Madeira, shewed manifest tokens of having been burnt; nor is there a single specimen of any stone, among all those that were collected in the island, upon which there are not manifest and indubitable marks of fire; except perhaps some small pieces of the hatchet-fstone, and even of that, other fragments were collected which are burnt almost to a pumice. Traces of fire are alfo manifeft in the very clay upon the hills; and it may, therefore, not únreasonably be supposed, that this, and the neighbouring iflands, are either fhattered remains

1769.

July. Monday 3.

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