:72 



A VOYAGE TO 



1777- I went on fliore foon after, and found the inhabitants 



June. 



w — ^— » very bufy in their plantations, digging up yams to bring to 

 market -, and, in the courfe of the day, about two hundred 

 of them had affembled on the beach, and traded with as 

 much eagernefs, as during our late vifit. Their flock ap- 

 peared to have been recruited much, though we had re- 

 turned fo foon ; but, inftead of bread-fruit, which was the 

 only article we could purchafe on our firft arrival, nothing 

 was to be feen now but yams, and a few plantains. This 

 Ihews the quick fucceffion of the feafons, at leafl of the dif- 

 ferent vegetables produced here, at the feveral times of the 

 year. It appeared alfo that they had been very bufy, while 

 we v/ere abfent, in cultivating; for we now faw feveral large 

 plantain fields, in places which we had, fo lately, feen lying 

 wafle. The yams were now in the greatefl perfecflion ; and 

 we procured a good quantity, in exchanges for pieces of 

 iron. 



Thefe people, in the abfence of Toobou, whom we left 

 behind us at Kotoo, with Poulaho and the other Chiefs, 

 feemed to be under little fubordination. For we could not 

 perceive, this day, that one man afTumed more authority 

 than another. Before I returned on board, I vifited the 

 feveral places where I had fown melon feeds, and had the 

 mortificatron to find, that mofl of them were deflroyed by 

 a fmall ant; but fome pine-apple plants, which I had alfo 

 left, were in a thriving ftate. 



I'riday 6. About uoon, ncxt day, Feenou arrived from Vavaoo. He 

 told us, that feveral canoes, laden with hogs, and other 

 provilions, which had failed with him from that ifland, had 

 been loft, owing to the late blowing weather ; and that every 



body 



