38 1 COOKS VOYAGE TO JULY, 



have been of more value there than at Otaheite ; for 

 the natives of the former island, I am persuaded, 

 would have taken more pains to multiply the breed. 



The next day we took up our anchor, and moved 

 the ships behind Pangimodoo, that we might be 

 ready to take the advantage of the first favourable 

 wind to get through the narrows. The king, who 

 was one of our company this day at dinner, I ob- 

 served took particular notice of the plates. This 

 occasioned me to make him an offer of one, either of 

 pewter, or of earthen ware. He chose the first ; 

 and then began to tell us the several uses to which 

 he intended to apply it. Two of them are so extra- 

 ordinary, that I cannot omit mentioning them. He 

 said, that whenever he should have occasion to visit 

 any of the other islands, he would leave this plate 

 behind him at Tongataboo, as a sort of representative 

 in his absence, that the people might pay it the same 

 obeisance they do to himself in person. He was 

 asked what had been usually employed for this pur- 

 pose before he got this plate \ and we had the satis- 

 faction of learning from him that this singular honour 

 had hitherto been conferred on a wooden bowl in 

 which he washed his hands. The other extraordi- 

 nary use to which he meant to apply it in the room 

 of his wooden bowl, was to discover a thief. He 

 said, that when any thing was stolen, and the thief 

 could not be found out, the people were all assem- 

 bled before him, when he washed his hands in water 

 in this vessel ; after which it was cleaned, and then 

 the whole multitude advanced, one after another, and 

 touched it in the same manner that they touch his 

 foot when they pay him obeisance. If the guilty 

 person touched it, he died immediately upon the 

 spot ; not by violence, but by the hand of Provi- 

 dence ; and if any one refused to touch it, his re- 

 fusal was a clear proof that he was the man. 



In the morning of the 5th, the day of the eclipse, 

 the weather was dark and cloudy, with showers o 



19 



