1774. ROUND THE WORLD. 355 



have customs among them which they either will not, 

 or cannot explain. Oedidee told us he was one ; 

 Tupia was one ; and yet I have not been able to get 

 any tolerable idea of this set of men, from either of 

 them. Oedidee denies that the children they have by 

 their mistresses are put to death, as we understood 

 from Tupia and others. I have had some conversa- 

 tion with Omai on this subject, and find that he con- 

 firms every thing that is said upon it in the narrative 

 of my former voyage. 



Oedidee, who generally slept on shore, came off 

 with a message from Oree, desiring I would land 

 with twenty-two men, to go with him, to chastise the 

 robbers. The messenger brought with him by way 

 of assisting his memory, twenty-two pieces of leaves, 

 a method customary amongst them. On my receiv- 

 ing this extraordinary message, I went to the chief 

 for better information ; and all I could learn of him 

 was, that these fellows were a sort of banditti, who 

 had formed themselves into a body with a resolution 

 of seizing and robbing our people wherever they 

 found them, and were now armed for that purpose : 

 for which reason he wanted me to go along with him 

 to chastise them. I told him, if I went, they would 

 fly to the mountains-; but he said they were resolved 

 to fight us, and therefore desired I would destroy 

 both them and their house ; but begged I would 

 spare those in the neighbourhood, as also the canoes 

 and the Whenooa. By way of securing these, he 

 presented me with a pig as a peace-offering for the 

 Whenooa. It was too small to be meant for any 

 thing but a ceremony of this kind. This sensible 

 old chief could see (what, perhaps, none of the others 

 ever thought of) that every thing in the neighbour- 

 hood was at our mercy, and therefore took care to 

 secure them by this method, which I suppose to be of 

 weight with them. When 1 returned on board, I 

 considered of the chief's request, which, upon the 

 whole, appeared an extraordinary one. I, however, 



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