376 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



them, partly by signs and partly by words, that it was time 

 for them to go, but if they would come again the next bread- 

 fruit season, they should be better able to supply their 

 wants. On our telling Terreeoboo we should leave the 

 island the next day but one, we observed that a sort of 

 proclamation was immediately made through the villages, 

 to require the people to bring in their hogs and vegetables 

 for the king to present to the Orono on his departure. 



" The next day being fixed for our departure, Terreeoboo 

 invited Captain Cook and myself to attend him on the 3rd, 

 to the place where Kaoo resided. On our arrival, we found 

 the ground covered with parcels of cloth, a vast quantity of 

 red and yellow feathers tied to the fibres of cocoa-nut husks, 

 and a great number of hatchets and other pieces of ironware 

 that had been got in barter from us. At a little distance 

 from these lay an immense quantity of vegetables of every 

 kind, and near them was a very large herd of hogs. At first 

 we imagined the whole to be intended as a present for us, till 

 Kaireekeea informed me that it was a gift, or tribute from 

 the people of that district to the king ; and accordingly, as 

 soon as we were seated, they brought all the bundles, and 

 laid them severally at Terreeoboo's feet, who gave all the 

 hogs and vegetables, and two-thirds of the cloth, to Captain 

 Cook and myself. We were astonished at the value and 

 magnitude of this present, which far exceeded everything 

 of the kind we had seen, either at the Friendly or Society 

 Islands. 



" The same day we quitted the morai, and got the tents 

 and astronomical instruments on board. The charm of the 

 taboo was now removed ; and here I hope I may be per- 

 mitted to relate a trifling occurrence, in which I was princi- 

 pally concerned. Having had the command of the party on 

 shore, during the whole time we were in the bay, I had an 

 opportunity of becoming well acquainted with the natives. 



" I spared no endeavours to conciliate their affections and 

 gain their esteem ; and had the good fortune to succeed so 

 far, that, when the time of our departure was made known, 

 I was strongly solicited to remain behind, not without offers 

 of the most flattering kind. When I excused myself by 

 saying that Captain Cook would not give his consent, they 

 proposed that I should retire into the mountains, where 

 they said they would conceal me, till after the departure of 

 the ships ; and on my farther assuring them that the 

 Captain would not leave the bay without me, Terreeoboo 

 and Kaoo waited upon Captain Cook, whose son they 

 supposed I was, with a formal request that I might be left 

 behind. The Captain, to avoid giving a positive refusal 

 to an offer so kindly intended, told them that he could not 



