them to excess, wherever they went.

At one end

of a long house were seen fifteen human jaw bones, which were fastened to a semi-circular board; they appeared to be fresh, and there was not one of them that wanted a single tooth. The whole of the southeast division of the island appeared to be fertile and populous, insomuch as to surpass Opourenou in those particulars, although it is not above onefourth part as large.

On the north-western extremity of Tiarrabou, or the smaller division of the island, was seen the figure of a man constructed of basket-work, rudely made, but not ill designed; it was something more than seven feet high, and rather too bulky in proportion to its height. This wicker skeleton was completely covered with feathers, which were white where the skin was to appear, and black in the parts which it is their custom to paint or stain, as well as upon the head, which was designed to represent hair. Upon the head also were four protuberances, three in front, and one behind, which had the appearance of horns, but the Indians called them tate ete, little men. This image was called Manioe, and was a representation of Mauwe, one of their Eatuas, or gods of the second class. It was said to be the only one of the kind at Otaheite. On arriving at the southern coast of Opoureonou, or the north-west peninsula, they soon reached a district called Paparra, belonging to Oamo and Oberea; the ground here was strewed with human bones, chiefly ribs and vertebræ. These were the memorials of a descent which the people of the south-east peninsula had made about six months before, when they had killed a great number of the natives. Oberea and Oamo sayed their lives by a precipi

tate retreat to the mountains, whilst the conquerors burned all the houses, and carried away the hogs, with whatever other booty they could possess themselves of; and the jaw-bones, which were seen in the territory of the conquerors, were trophies of victory collected from the slain.

Paparra is the southern point of the island, as Point Venus is the northern, and to which it is exactly parallel. The western side of the island was coasted without any material occurrence; and the party arrived at Matavai bay on the 1st of July, having found the circuit of the island, including both peninsulas, to be about thirty leagues. A reef of coral rocks encompasses this coast, except in some few parts. Here are several excellent bays and harbours, where there are room and depth of water for any number of the largest ships. The stones every where bear the appearance of fire.

The best articles of traffic on this island are axes, hatchets, spikes, large nails, looking-glasses, knives and beads; for some of which, every thing which the natives had might be procured. They are indeed fond of white linen cloth, both white and printed; but an axe, worth half a crown, would fetch more than a piece of cloth worth twenty shillings. When the Dolphin lay here, the gunner put one of the natives in possession of an iron pot, in which he used to dress his victuals while on shore, and the natives grew fond of boiled meat, of which manner of dressing they had till then been totally ignorant. Several iron pots were afterwards given to Oberea and some of the chiefs, which were in constant use, and drew every body to see them; but during the long stay of Mr. Cook in this island, we hear nothing of their improvement in the culinary

art, or of any farther assistance which was rendered this people, by supplying them with pots for boiling. However desirous the natives might be to eat boiled meat, it was not adviseable to produce such an article of barter as iron kettles, when a few spike nails, or a common hatchet, would procure one of their largest hogs.

There are no other tame animals on the island but hogs, dogs, and poultry; and the only wild animals are tropic birds, parroquets, pigeons, ducks, a few other birds, rats, and a very few serpents. The sea, however, supplies the inhabitants with a great variety of the most excellent fish.

Dogs are considered by these Indians as more delicate food than their pork; such as are 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: the gentlemen of the ship being desirous of tasting this dainty, had one, which was very fat, killed and dressed after the manner of the country, and they all agreed that it made a very good dish. The animal is suffocated, by his mouth and nose being close stopped with the hand, which operation is continued above a quarter of an hour. In the mean time a hole is made in the ground about a foot deep, in which a fire is kindled, and some small stones placed in layers alternately with the wood, to heat. The dog, when dead, is singed by holding him over the fire, and by scraping him with a shell, the hair is taken off as clean as if he had been scalded in hot water. He is then cut up with the same instrument, and his entrails being taken out, are carried to the sea, and there washed; they are afterwards put into cocoa-nut shells, with what blood comes from the body, and when the

hole is sufficiently heated, the fire is taken out, and some of the hot stones being placed at the bottom, are covered with green leaves, upon which the dog with the entrails is placed, and other leaves being laid upon them, the whole is covered with the rest of the hot stones, and the mouth of the hole close stopped with earth: in somewhat less than four hours it is again opened, and the dog taken out, which is always found to be excellently well baked. To this accout of their cookery, it is necessary to add something concerning the bread-fruit: it grows upon a tree commonly about the size of a middling oak, which has leaves frequently a foot and a half long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those of the fig-tree, which they resemble in consistence and colour, and in the exuding of a white milky juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the size and shape of a child's head, and the surface is reticulated not much unlike a truffle: it is covered with a thin skin, and has a core about as big as the handle of a small knife: the eatable part lies between the skin and the core; it is as white as snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread: it must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided into three or four parts: its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness, resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke. Mr. Green, the astronomer, saw here a species of the fig, the branches of which bending down, take fresh root in the earth, and thus form a congeries of trunks, which being very close to each other, and all joined by a common vegetation, appear like one vast trunk; that which was seen here was sixty yards in circumference.

The men are tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely

shaped; the women are of an inferior size. They are of a clear olive complexion, their skins smooth and soft, and the shape of the face comely, though the nose is somewhat flat. Their eyes, especially those of the women, are full of expression; their teeth are white and even, and their breath untainted. Their hair is coarse, and almost universally black; and the men have beards, which they wear in many fashions, but always pluck out a great part of them, and keep the rest perfectly clean and neat. Both sexes also eradicate every hair from under their arms. In their motions there is at once vigour and ease; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their behaviour to strangers and to each other affable and courteous. They also seem to be brave, and of an open, candid disposition, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or revenge. Their only vices, if in them such propensities can be called by that name, are a propensity to thieving and lewdness.

It ought not to be omitted, that both the men and women are remarkable for their cleanliness. They constantly wash their bodies in running water three times every day; once as soon as they rise in the morning, once at noon, and again before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river be near them or at a distance. They wash their hands and mouths at every meal; and both their clothes and persons are kept without spot or stain.

In the water they are amazingly expert. On a part of the shore where a tremendously high surf broke, insomuch that no European boat could live in it, and the best swimmer in Europe could not have preserved himself from drowning, if by any accident he had been exposed to its fury, as the