OF LA PEROUSE. 14! 



Prefently we reached the top of a little hill, 

 in a charming fpor, where the inhabitants had 

 formed, with palifades, and fome flirubs cut 

 with art, a fort of rotunda four meters broad, 

 under which were ftill to be feen the remains of 

 the roots of the kava pepper-tree that they 

 had chevvn. It was furrounded by twenty-four 

 fmall cabins, built on the borders of a circular 

 fpot, from fourteen to fifteen meters in extent: 

 all thcfe were covered with leaves of the cocoa- 

 palm interwoven with each other ; and they pre- 

 fented nearly the form of a demi-oval, two 

 meters broad by three long, and divided from 

 top to bottom by a very narrow flit, which, 

 however, was the only opening to it, but the 

 fides of which it was necefTary to pull back, 

 in order to be able to enter it. Some natives 

 who had followed us, informed us that the King 

 often came to drink kava in this place, with 

 feveral chiefs of the ifland; and that after- 

 wards every one went and Oept in thefe huts. 



On returning towards the place of the en- 

 tertainment, we went along the circumference 

 of the largefl: circle formed by the inhabitants, 

 in the mid ft of whom we remarked feveral 

 wives of eguis. T'Uttafaihe'i, from her beauty, 

 attradled almoft every eye; but flie took care to 

 hint to her admirers, froni time to time, that it 

 was her duty to remain faithful to her hufband. 



This 



