8 Russian Expedifion to Japan. 



and did every thing in their power, by gestures and trick* 

 of every kind, to attract our attention. They threw them- 

 selves into all sorts of postures, lay sometimes on one side 

 and sometimes on their back, elevated their legs, &c. The 

 women in this respect did not yield to the men ; and the 

 object of their pantomime might easily be comprehended. 

 When a piece of a coco-nut was thrown at them from the 

 ship, or when any of the sailors spat down upon one of 

 them, the astonished savap;e imniediately became an object 

 of laughter to the rest. The natives brought us coco-nuts, 

 bread-fruit, and bananas. The two latter articles, at this 

 season of the year, were scarce. When any of them had 

 obtained, as the price of their wares, a small piece of iron, 

 or an old nail, they burst out into an immoderate fit of 

 laughter; the reason of which, as appeared, was, that they 

 thought we had been most egregiously cheated. When 

 they received nails from us, they stuck them into the. laps 

 of their ears, the holes in which were so susceptible of ex- 

 tension, that they did not seem to be incommoded by a 

 large rusty nail. Mr. Roberts told us that there was a 

 Frenchman in the island ; but he cautioned us against him, 

 as a itian of a very bad ch?.ractcr. 



V Lile we lay a* anchor tlie king or chief of the bay, 

 Tapeka Ketenue, came to' us in a canoe, and aiiiong his 

 retmue was the Frenchman. As I do not understand 

 English, I was extremely glad; but this Frenchman had so 

 much forgotten his mother tongue, that he was become a 

 real savage. All that he was able to say was, — Ojn moi 

 Icaticoiip Frcai^ois, Americanish ship, c/i dai?.W7is la Car- 

 onagnole ! He would then laugli like a native of Nukahiva, 

 to whom he had a great resemblance, as not only his bodv 

 but the greater part of his face was tatooed. He understood 

 English pretty well, as he \i^A been accustomed to converse 

 with the Englishman in this language. He told us, that 

 he had come to the Marquesas in an x\mcrican ship ; that 

 this ship had been on the whale fishery ; and that from the 

 whales coco-nut oil was obtained. The person called by 

 the Englishmian the king, though that title did not seem 

 at all suited to him, was a man of about forty or fifty 

 years of agd, tatooed over his whole body, except on the 

 palms cf the hands and the soles of the feet : he viewed his 

 corpulent per'-on with great satisfaction in the captain's 

 looking-glass, and was highly delighted with the presents 

 which he received. 



Next day, the 8th, we went on shore: we were all armed ; 



Jind the sailors, who had iiiusk^ts, pi-.-lolsj and sabres, kept 



6 the 



