THIRD VOYAGE 279 



it would be otherwise ; but still I was in hopes that the 

 valuable cargo of presents, with which the liberality of his 

 friends in England had loaded him, would bfe the means of 

 raising him into consequence, and of making him respected, 

 and even courted by the first persons throughout the extent 

 of the Society Islands. This could not but have happened 

 had he conducted himself with any degree of prudence. 

 But instead of it, I am sorry to say that he paid too little 

 regard to the repeated advice of those who wished him well, 

 and suffered himself to be duped by every designing 

 knave. 



" The important news of red feathers being on board our 

 ships having been conveyed on shore by Omai's friends,, day 

 had no sooner begun to break next morning, than we were 

 surrounded by a multitude of canoes, crowded with people 

 bringing hogs and fruit to market. At first, a quantity of 

 feathers, not greater than what might be got from a torn-tit, 

 would purchase a hog of forty or fifty pounds weight. But 

 as almost everybody in the ships was possessed of some of 

 this precious article of trade, it fell in its value above five 

 hundred per cent, before night. 



" Soon after we had anchored, Omai's sister came on 

 board to see him. I was happy to observe that, much to 

 the honour of them both, their meeting was marked with 

 expressions of the tenderest affection, easier to be conceived 

 than to be described. 



" This moving scene having closed, and the ship being 

 properly moored, Omai and I went on shore. My first 

 object was to pay a visit to a man, whom my friend repre- 

 sented as a very extraordinary personage indeed, for he said 

 that he was the god of Bolabola. We found him seated 

 under one of those small awnings which they usually carry 

 in their larger canoes. He was an elderly man, and had lost 

 the use of his limbs, so that he was carried from place to 

 place upon a hand-barrow. From Omai's account of this 

 person, I expected to have seen some religious adoration 

 paid to him ; but excepting some young plantain-trees that 

 lay before him, and upon the awning under which he sat, 

 I could observe nothing by which he might be distinguished 

 from their other chiefs. Omai presented to him a tuft of 

 red feathers tied to the end of a small stick, but after a 

 little conversation on indifferent matters with this Bolabola 

 man, his attention was drawn to an old woman, the sister 

 of his mother. She was already at his feet, and had 

 bedewed them plentifully with tears of joy. 



" I left him with the old lady in the midst of a number 

 of people who had gathered round him, and went to view a 

 house, said to be built by strangers since I was here before. 



