THIRD VOYAGE 241 



amongst these, we found a person who seemed a chief, 

 sitting on the ground crosslegged, cooling himself with 

 a sort of triangular fan made from a leaf of the cocoa- 

 palm. In his ears were large bunches of beautiful red 

 feathers; but he had no other mark to distinguish him 

 from the rest of the people, though they all obeyed him. 

 " ' We proceeded still amongst the men armed with 

 clubs, and came to a second chief, who sat fanning him- 

 self, and ornamented as the first. In the same manner 

 we were conducted to a third chief, who seemed older 

 than the two former. He also was sitting, and adorned 

 with red feathers ; and after saluting him as we had 

 done the others, he desired us both to sit down. 



" ' In a few minutes, we saw, at a small distance, about 

 twenty young women, ornamented as the chiefs with red 

 feathers, engaged in a dance, which they performed to a 

 slow and serious air, sung by them all. We got up and 

 went forward to see them ; and though we must have 

 been strange objects to them, they continued their dance 

 without paying the least attention to us. Their motions 

 and song were performed in exact concert. In general, 

 they were rather stout than slender, with black hair flowing 

 in ringlets down the neck, and of an olive complexion. 

 Their eyes were of a deep black, and each countenance 

 expressed a degree of complacency and modesty, peculiar 

 to the sex in every part of the world ; but perhaps more 

 conspicuous here, where Nature presented us with her 

 productions in the fullest perfection, unbiassed in senti- 

 ment by custom, or unrestrained in manner by art. 



' The natives now seemed to take some pains to 

 separate us from each other ; every one of us having 

 his circle, to surround and gaze at him ; and when I 

 told the chief with whom I sat, that I wanted to speak 

 to Omai, he peremptorily refused my request. At the 

 same time, I found the people began to steal several 

 trifling things which I had in my pocket ; and when I 

 took the liberty of complaining to the chief of this treat- 

 ment, he justified it. From these circumstances, I now 

 entertained apprehensions that they might have formed 

 the design of detaining us amongst them. 



' Mr. Burney happening to come to the place where 

 I was, I mentioned my suspicions to him ; and, to put 

 it to the test, whether they were well founded, we 

 attempted to get to the beach. But we were stopped, 

 when about half way. by some men who told us that 

 we must go back to the place where we had left. On 

 coming up, we found Omai entertaining the same appre- 

 hensions. But he had, as he fancied, an additional 



