1769* KOLTND THE WORLD. 1^ 



be Oil board, than bread-fruit, cocoa-imts, and other 

 provisions were brought to the fort in great plenty^ 



Affairs now went on in the usual channel ; but 

 pork being still a scarce commodity, our master, Mr. 

 Mollineux, and Mr. Green, went in the pinnace to 

 the eastward, on the 8th, early in the morning to 

 see whether they could procure any hogs or poultry 

 in that part of the country : they proceeded in that 

 direction twenty miles; but though they saw many 

 hogs, and one turtle, they could not purchase either 

 at any price : the people every where told them, that 

 they all belonged to Tootahah, and that they could 

 sell none of them without his permission. We now 

 began to think that this man was indeed a great 

 prince ; for an influence so extensive and absolute 

 could be acquired by no other. And we afterwards 

 found that he administered the government of this 

 part of the island, as sovereign, for a minor whom 

 we never saw all the time that we were upon it. When 

 Mr. Green returned from this expedition, he said 

 he had seen a tree of a size which he was afraid to 

 relate, it being no less than sixty yards in circumfe- 

 rence ; but Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander soon ex- 

 plained to him, that it was a species of the ^g, the 

 branches of which, bending down, take fresh root 

 in the earth, and thus form a congeries of trunks, 

 which being very close to each other, and all joined 

 by a common vegetation, might easily be mistaken 

 for one. 



Though the market at the fort was now tolerably 

 supplied, provisions were brought more slowly ; a 

 sufficient quantity used to be purchased between sun- 

 rise and eight o'clock, but it was now become neces- 

 sary to attend the greatest part of the day. Mr. 

 Banks, therefore, fixed his little boat up before the 

 door of the fort, which was of great use as a place 

 to trade in : hitherto we had purchased cocoa-nuts 

 and bread-fruit for beads ; but the market becoming 

 rather slack in these articles, we were now, for the 



