142 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



Many canoes also came off with fruit and hogs ; the latter 

 they even begged of them to take from them, calling out, 

 " I am your friend, take my hog, and give me an axe." 

 But the decks were already so full that they could hardly 

 move, having on board both ships between three and four 

 hundred. It is not easy to say how many they might 

 have got, could they have found room for all that were 

 offered them. 



The chief and his friends did not leave them till they 

 were under sail : and before he went away, pressed them 

 much to know if they would not return, and when. 

 Questions which were daily put by many of these islanders. 

 The Otaheitean youth's leaving Captain Cook proved of 

 no consequence, as many young men of this island volun- 

 tarily offered to come away with them. He thought proper 

 to take on board one who was about 17 or 18 years of age, 

 named Oedidee, a native of Bolabola, and a near relation 

 of the chief of that island. 



The island of Otaheite which, in the year 1767 and 1768, 

 swarmed, as it were, with hogs and fowls, was now so ill 

 supplied, that hardly anything could induce the owners to 

 part with them. 



As Captain Cook had some reason to believe that, amongst 

 the religious customs of these people, human sacrifices were 

 sometimes considered as necessary, he went one day to a 

 Marai in Matavia, in company with Captain Furneaux, 

 having with them, as they had upon all other occasions, 

 one of their own men who spoke their language tolerably 

 well, and several of the natives, one of whom appeared to 

 be an intelligent, sensible man. In the Marai was a tupa- 

 pow, on which lay a dead corpse and some viands. He 

 began with asking questions relating to the several objects 

 before him ; if the plantains, etc., were for the Eatua ? 

 If they sacrificed to the Eatua, hogs, dogs, fowls, etc. To 

 all of which he answered in the affirmative ; but they did 

 not sufficiently understand the language to have a perfect 

 comprehension of his meaning. 



He has since learnt, from Omai, that they offer human 

 sacrifices to the Supreme Being. According to his account, 

 what men shall be so sacrificed depends on the caprice of 

 the high priest, who, when they are assembled on any 

 solemn occasion, retires alone into the house of God, and 

 stays there some time. When he comes out, he informs 

 them that he has seen and conversed with their great God, 

 and that he has asked for a human sacrifice, and tells them 

 that he has desired such a person, naming a man present, 

 whom most probably the priest has an antipathy against. 

 He is immediately killed, and so falls a victim to the priest's 



