i82 AVOYAGETO 



■777- Gore. In return for this civility, I s:ave him an axe, and 



Aon!. JO 



\ — A. ' a piece of red cloth ; and he paddled back to the fliore 



well fatisfied. I afterward underflood from Omai, that 

 this prefent had been fent from the king, or principal Chief 

 of the ifland. 



Not long after, a double canoe, in which were twelve 

 men, came toward us. As they drew near the Ihip, they 

 recited fome words in concert, by way of chorus *', one of 

 tlieir number iirfl: Handing up, and giving the word before 

 each repetition. When they had finifhed their folemn 

 chant, they came along-fide, and aflicd for the Chief. As 

 foon as I fliewed myfelf, a pig and a few cocoa-nuts were 

 conveyed up into the fliip ; and the principal perfon in the 

 canoe made me an additional prefent of a piece of mat- 

 ting, as foon as he and his companions got on board. 



Our vifiters were conducfted into the cabin, and to 

 other parts of the lliip. Some objects feemed to ftrike 

 them with a degree of fiirprize ; but nothing fixed their at- 

 tention for a moment. They were afraid to come near the 

 cov,/s and horfes ; nor did they form the leaft concep- 

 tion of their nature. But the fheep and goats did not fur- 

 pafs the limits of their ideas ; for they gave us to under- 

 ftand, that they knew them to be birds. It will appear rather 

 incredible, that human ignorance could ever make fo 



* Something like this ceremony was performed by the inhabitants of the Marquefas, 

 when Captain Cook vifited them in 1774. See his Voyage, Vol. i. p. 301. It is 

 curious to obferve, at what immenfe diftances this mode of receiving ftrangers pre- 

 vails. Padiilo, who failed from Manilla in 1710, on a voyage to difcover the 

 Paiacs Iflands, was thus received there. The writer of the relation of iiis voyage 

 fays, " AufTitot qu'ils approcherent dc notre bord, ils fe mirent a chanter. lis 

 *' regloicnt la cadence, en frappant des mains fur leurs cuifles." 



Leit/es Edifiantcs Lf Curicujls, Tom. xv. p. 323. 



llrange 



