EASTER ISLAND AND THE MARQUESAS 155 



rected against a troop of bandits who had in- 

 tended to pillage the strangers. They could not 

 be reached, but this warlike march inspired the 

 inhabitants with a healthy dread. They offered 

 Cook a quantity of provisions, without asking 

 for anything in exchange. 



Cook had brought from Tahiti a number of 

 natives who wished to go as far as Ulietea. 

 Among these was one of the prettiest of the Ta- 

 hitian girls, who had begged the Captain to drop 

 her at this island, where she wished to revisit 

 her parents, whom she had left some years before 

 to follow the man she loved. She was not afraid 

 of their anger, for the moral code of the island- 

 ers was wide and indulgent. She landed at 

 Huaheine dressed in the uniform of one of the 

 Resolution s officers, and, thus forestalling cer- 

 tain feminine fashions, she made a sensation in 

 the island. Her story flew from hut to hut, and 

 the natives of Huaheine, who were born dra- 

 matists, improvised from this living romance a 

 comedy to which they invited the Englishmen. 

 The piece dealt with the adventures of a girl 

 who fled from Tahiti with the strangers and 

 returned to her own country, where she was 

 heartily welcomed by her friends and relations. 

 The poor woman watched this spectacle, of 

 which she was the heroine, and, confronted by 

 the scene of her own life, she wept bitterly. 



