1773. ROUND THE WORLD. 11.5 



the sort we brewed with, but doubtless all three might 

 safely serve that purpose. The tea plant is a small 

 tree or shrub, with five white petals, or flower-leaves, 

 shaped like those of a rose, having smaller ones of the 

 same figure in the intermediate spaces, and twenty or 

 more filaments or threads. The tree sometimes grows 

 to a moderate height, and is generally bare on the 

 lower part, with a number of small branches growing 

 close together towards the top. The leaves are small 

 and pointed, like those of the myrtle ; it bears a 

 dry roundish seed-case, and grows commonly in dry 

 places near the shores. The leaves, as I have al- 

 ready observed, were used by many of us as tea, 

 which has a very agreeable bitter and flavour, when 

 they are recent, but loses some of both when they 

 are dried. When the infusion was made strong, it 

 proved emetic to some, in the same manner as green 

 tea. 



The inhabitants of this bay are of the same race 

 of people with those in the other parts of this 

 country, speak the same language, and observe 

 nearly the same customs. These, indeed, seem to 

 have a custom of making presents before they re- 

 ceive any, in which they come nearer to the Ota- 

 heiteans than the rest of their countrymen. What 

 could induce three or four families (for I believe 

 there are not more) to separate themselves so far from 

 the society of the rest of their fellow-creatures, is not 

 easy to guess. By our meeting with inhabitants in 

 this place, it seems probable, that there are people 

 scattered over all this southern island. But the 

 many vestiges of them in different parts of this bay, 

 compared with the number that we actually saw, 

 indicates that they live a wandering life ; and, if one 

 may judge from appearances and circumstances, few 

 as they are, they live not in perfect amity one family 

 with another. For, if they did, why do they not 

 form themselves into some society ? a thing not only 



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