16 A VOYAGE TO JAN. 



who was at that time absent attending the king of 

 the island. 



As every thing relating to the character and beha- 

 viour of this people must be interesting to the reader, 

 on account of the tragedy that was afterwards acted 

 here, it will be proper to acquaint him, that we had 

 not always so much reason to be satisfied with the 

 conduct of the warrior chiefs, or Ea?*ees, as with that 

 of the priests. In all our dealings with the former, 

 we found them sufficiently attentive to their own in- 

 terests ; and besides their habit of stealing, which 

 may admit of some excuse, from the universality of 

 the practice amongst the islanders of these seas, they 

 made use of other artifices equally dishonourable. I 

 shall only mention one instance, in which we disco- 

 vered, with regret, our friend Koah to be a party 

 principally concerned. As the chiefs, who brought 

 us presents of hogs, were always sent back hand- 

 somely rewarded, we had generally a greater supply 

 than we could make use of. On these occasions, 

 Koah, who never failed in his attendance on us, used 

 to beg such as we did not want, and they were always 

 given to him. It one day happened, that a pig was 

 presented us by a man whom Koah himself introduced 

 as a chief, who was desirous of paying his respects, 

 and we recollected the pig to be the same that had 

 been given to Koah just before. This leading us to 

 suspect some trick, we found, on further enquiry, the 

 pretended chief to be an ordinary person ; and on 

 connecting this with other circumstances, we had 

 reason to suspect, that it was not the first time we had 

 been the dupes of the like imposition. 



Things continued in this state till the 24th, when 

 we were a good deal surprised to find that no canoes 

 were suffered to put off from the shore, and that the 

 natives kept close to their houses. After several 

 hours' suspense, we learned that the bay was tabooed, 

 and all intercourse with us interdicted, on account of 



