A ROYAL DANCE. 437 



chiefs. A potentate of high warlike renown came one day to 

 the side of the Resolution, and offered for sale a superb bundle 

 of cocoanuts, which was readily bought by one of the officers. 

 On untying it, it was found to consist of fruit which they had 

 already once bought, and which had been tapped, emptied 

 of the milk, and thrown overboard. The dishonest dignitary 

 sat in his canoe at a distance, indicating by the glee and vigor 

 of his pantomime that he enjoyed in a supreme degree the bril- 

 liant success of this mercantile fraud. 



At another part of the coast, Cook and his officers were in- 

 vited by Otoo, the king, to visit the theatre, where a play was 

 to be enacted with music and dancing. The performers were 

 five men and one woman, who was no less a personage than the 

 king's sister. The instruments consisted of three drums only, 



