1?77 THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 343 



did not misunderstand them, superior even to Pou- 

 laho, to whom he was related ; but, being old, lived 

 in retirement ; and, therefore, would not visit us. 

 Some of the natives even hinted that he was too 

 great a man to confer that honour upon us. This 

 account exciting my curiosity, I this day mentioned 

 to Poulaho, that I was very desirous of waiting 

 upon Mareewagee ; and he readily agreed to ac- 

 company me to the place of his residence, the next 

 morning. 



Accordingly we set out pretty early in the pin- 

 nace ; and Captain Clerke joined me in one of his 

 own boats. We proceeded round, that is, to the 

 eastward of the little isles that form the harbour, and 

 then turning to the south, according to Poulaho's 

 directions, entered a spacious bay or inlet, up which 

 we rowed about a league, and landed amidst a con- 

 siderable number of people, who received us with a 

 sort of acclamation, not unlike our huzzaing. They 

 immediately separated, to let Poulaho pass, who 

 took us into a small inclosure, and shifted the piece 

 of cloth he wore, for a new piece, neatly folded, that 

 was carried by a young man. An old woman as- 

 sisted in dressing him, and put a mat over his cloth, 

 as we supposed, to prevent its being dirtied when he 

 sat down. On our now asking him where Mareewagee 

 was, to our great surprize, he said, he had gone from 

 the place to the ship, just before we arrived. How- 

 ever, he desired us to walk with him to a malaee, or 

 house of public resort, which stood about half a mile 

 up the country ; but when we came to a large area 

 before it, he sat down in the path, and desired us to 

 walk up to the house. We did so, and seated our- 

 selves in front, while the crowd that followed us 

 filled up the rest of the space. After sitting a little 

 while, we repeated our inquiries, by means of Omai, 

 whether we were to see Mareewagee ? But receiving 

 no satisfactory information, and suspecting that the 

 old chief was purposely concealed from us, we went 



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