96 OTAHITE CHAP, v 



this morning to see her. A small square was neatly railed 

 in with bamboo, and in the midst of it a canoe awning set 

 up upon two posts ; in this the body was laid, covered with 

 fine cloth. Near this was laid fish, meat, etc. for the gods, 

 not for the deceased, but to satisfy the hunger of the deities 

 lest they should eat the body, which Tubourai told us they 

 would certainly do, if this ceremony were neglected. In 

 the front of the square was a kind of stile, or place lower 

 than the rest, where the relatives of the deceased stood 

 when they cried or bled themselves. Under the awning 

 were numberless rags containing the blood and tears they 

 had shed. Within a few yards were two occasional houses ; 

 in one of them some of the relations, generally a good 

 many, constantly remained ; in the other the chief male 

 mourner resided, and kept a very remarkable dress in 

 which he performed a ceremony. Both dress and ceremony 

 I shall describe when I have an opportunity of seeing it in 

 perfection, which Tubourai promises me I shall soon have. 



This day we kept the King's birthday, which had been 

 delayed on account of the absence of the two observing 

 parties. Several of the Indians dined with us and drank 

 his Majesty's health by the name of Kilnargo, for we could 

 not teach them to pronounce a word more like King George. 

 Tupia (Oborea's right-hand man, who was with her when 

 the Dolphin was here), to show his loyalty, got most 

 enormously drunk. 



6th. In walking into the woods yesterday, I saw in the 

 hands of an Indian an iron tool, made in the shape of the 

 Indian adzes, but very different, I am sure, from anything 

 that had been carried out or made either by the Dolphin or 

 this ship. This excited my curiosity, the more so as I 

 was told that it did not come out of either of those ships, 

 but from two others which came here together. This was 

 a discovery not to be neglected. With much difficulty 

 and labour I at last got the following account of them, viz. 

 that in their month of Pepare (which answers to our January 

 1*768), two Spanish ships came here, commanded by a man 

 whom they called To Otterah ; that they lay eight days in a 



