dent figns of fear, kept his place in my boat, and accompanied me on board the thip.

The cattle, and other new objects, that prefented themfelves to him there, did not ftrike him with so much surprise as one might have expected. Perhaps his mind was too much taken up about his own safety, to allow him to attend to other things. I could but get little new information from him; and therefore, after he had made a fhort flay, I ordered a boat to carry him in toward the land. As foon as he got out of the cabin, he happened to stumble over one of the goats. His curiofity now overcoming his fear, he ftopped, looked at it, and alked Ŏmai what bird this was? and not receiving an immediate answer from him, he repeated the question to fome of the people upon deck. The boat having conveyed him pretty near to the furf, he leaped into the fea, and fwam afhore. He had no fooner landed, than the multitude of his countrymen gathered round him, as if with an eager curiofity to learn from him what he had feen; and in this fituation they remained, when we loft fight of them.

After leaving Mangeea, as this island was called, on the afternoon of the 30th, we continued our course northward all that night, and till noon on the 31ft; when we again faw land, in the direction of north-eaft by north, diftant eight or ten leagues; and next morning we got abreast of its north end. I fent three armed boats to look for anchoring-ground, and a landing-place. In the mean time, we plyed up under the inland with the fhips.

Juft as the boats were putting off, we obferved feveral fingle canoes coming from the shore.

D 3

They

They went first to the Discovery, fhe being the nearest ship. It was not long after, when three of the canoes came along-fide of the Refolution, each conducted by one man. They are long and 10 narrow, and fupported by outriggers. Somet knives, beads, and other trifles, were conveyed to our vifiters; and they gave us a few cocoa-nuts, upon our afking for them. But they did not part with them by way of exchange for what they had received from us. For they feemed to have no idea of bartering; nor did they appear to esti mate any of our presents at a high rate.

With a little perfuafion, one of them came on board; and the other two, encouraged by his example, foon followed him. Their whole behaviour marked that they were quite at their eafe.

After their departure, another canoe arrived, conducted by a man who brought a bunch of plantains as a prefent to me; afking for me by name, having learnt it from Omai, who was fent before us in a boat, with Mr. Gore. In return for this civility, I gave him an axe and a piece of red cloth; and he paddled back to the fhore well fatisfied. I afterward understood from Omai, that this prefent had been fent from the king, or principal chief of the island.

Not long after a double canoe, in which were twelve men, came towards us, As they drew near the fhip, they recited fome words in concert, by way of chorus, one of their number firft ftanding up, and giving the word before each repetition. When they had finished their folemn chant, they came along-fide, and asked for the chief. As foon as I fhewed myself, a pig and a few cocoa-nuts were conveyed up into the ship;

and

and the principal perfon in the canoe made me an additional prefent of a piece of matting.

Our vifiters were conducted into the cabin, and to other parts of the fhip. Some objects seemed to ftrike them with a degree of furprife; but nothing fixed their attention for a moment. They were afraid to come near the cows and horses; nor did they form the leaft conception of their nature. But the sheep and goats did not furpafs the limits of their ideas; for they gave us to underftand, that they knew them to be birds. I made a prefent to my new friend, of what I thought might be moft acceptable to him; but, on his going away, he seemed rather difappointed than pleafed. I afterwards understood that he was very defirous of obtaining a dog, of which animal this ifland could not boaft.

The people in thefe canoes were in general of a middling fize, and not unlike those of Mangeea; though feveral were of a blacker caft than any we faw there. Their features were various, and fome of the young men rather handsome. Like thofe of Mangeea, they had girdles of glazed cloth, or fine matting, the ends of which, being brought betwixt their thighs, covered the adjoining parts. Ornaments, compofed of a fort of broad brafs, ftained with red, and ftrung with berries of the night-fhade, were worn about their necks. Their ears were bored, but not slit; and they were punctured upon their legs, from the knee to the heel, which made them appear as if they wore a kind of boots. Their behaviour was frank and cheerful, with a great deal of good

nature.

Soon after day-break, we obferved fome canoes coming off to the fhips, and one of them directed

its courfe to the Refolution. In it was a hog, with fome plantains and coca-nuts, for which the people who brought them demanded a dog from us, and refused every other thing that we offered in exchange. To gratify thefe people, Omai parted with a favourite dog he had brought from England; and with this acquifition they departed highly fatisfied.

I difpatched Lieutenant Gore with three boats, two from the Refolution, and one from the Discovery. Two of the natives, who had been on board, accompanied him, and Omai went with him in his boat as an interpreter. The fhips being a full league from the island when the boats put off, it was noon before we could work up to it. We then obferved a prodigious number of the natives abreaft of the boats. In order to obferve their motions, and to be ready to give fuch affiftance as our people might want, I kept as near the fhore as was prudent. Some of the islanders, now and then came off to the thips in their canoes, with a few cocoanuts, which they exchanged for whatever was offered to them.

Thefe occafional vifits served to leffen my folicitude about the people who had landed. Though we could get no information from our vifiters; yet their venturing on board feemed to imply, at leaft, that their countrymen on thore had not made an improper ufe of the confidence put in them. At length, a little before fun-set, we had the fatisfaction of seeing the boats put off. When they got on board, I found that Mr. Gore himfelf, Ŏmai, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Burney, were the only perfons who had landed. The tranfactions of the day were now fully reported to me

by

by Mr. Anderfon: I fhall give them nearly in bis words.

“We rowed toward a small fandy beach, upon which a great number of the natives had affembled. Several of the natives fwam off; bringing cocoa-nuts; and Omai, with their countrymen, whom we had with us in the boats, made them fenfible of our with to land.

Mr.Burney, the firft lieutenant of the Discovery, and I, went in one canoe, a little time before the other; and our conductors, watching attentively the motions of the surf, landed as fafely upon the reef. An islander took hold of each of us, obvioufly with an intention to fupport us in walking over the rugged rocks to the beach, where feveral of the others met us, holding the green boughs, of a species of mimosa, in their hands, and faluted us by applying their noses to ours.

We were conducted from the beach amidst a crowd of people, who flocked with very eager curiofity to look at us. We were then led up an avenue of cocoa-palms; and foon came to a number of men, arranged in two rows, armed with clubs. After walking a little way amongst thefe, we found a perfon, who seemed a chief, sitting on the ground cross-legged, cooling himself with a fort of triangular fan made from a leaf of the cocoa-palm. In his ears were large bunches of beautiful red feathers; but he had no other mark to diftinguish him from the reft of the people, though they all obeyed him.

We proceeded ftill amongst the men armed with clubs, and came to a fecond chief, who at fanning himself, and ornamented as the first. In the fame manner we were conducted to a third chief, who feemed older than the two former.

He