844 cook's voyage to june, 



back to our boats, much piqued at our disappoint- 

 ment ; and when I got on board, I found that no 

 such person had been there. It afterward appeared, 

 that, in this affair, we had laboured under some 

 gross mistakes, and that our interpreter Omai had 

 either been misinformed, or, which is more likely, 

 had misunderstood what was told him about the 

 great man, on whose account we had made this ex- 

 cursion. 



The place we went to was a village most delight- 

 fully situated on the bank of the inlet, where all or 

 most of the principal persons of the island reside ; 

 each having his house in the midst of a small plant- 

 ation, with lesser houses, and offices for servants. 

 These plantations are neatly fenced round ; and, for 

 the most part, have only one entrance. This is 

 by a door, fastened on the inside by a prop of wood ; 

 so that a person has to knock, before he can get ad- 

 mittance. Public roads, and narrow lanes, lie be- 

 tween each plantation ; so that no one trespasseth 

 upon another. Great part of some of these inclosures 

 is laid out in grass-plots, and planted with such 

 things as seem more for ornament than use. But 

 hardly any where without the kava plant, from which 

 they make their favourite liquor. Every article of 

 the vegetable produce of the island, abounded in 

 others of these plantations ; but these, I observed, 

 are not the residence of people of the first rank. 

 There are some large houses near the public roads, 

 with spacious smooth grass-plots before them, and 

 un inclosed. These, I was told, belonged to the 

 king ; and probably, they are the places where their 

 public assemblies are held. It was to one of these 

 houses, as I have already mentioned, that we were 

 conducted, soon after our landing at this place. 



About noon, the next day, this Mareewagee, of 

 whom we had heard so much, actually came to the 

 neighbourhood of our post on shore ; and, with him, 

 a very considerable number of people of all ranks, 



