496 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



Cook planted a pineapple and sowed some melon-seeds. He 

 was somewhat encouraged to hope that endeavors of this kind 

 would not be fruitless, for upon the same day the natives served 

 up at his dinner a dish of turnips, being the produce of the seeds 

 he had left there during his last voyage. 



The Resolution soon anchored off Tahiti, and Cook noticed 

 particularly the conduct of Omai, now about to be restored to his 

 home and his friends. A chief named Ootu, and Omai's brother- 

 in-law, came on board. There was nothing either tender or strik- 

 ing in their meeting. On the contrary, there seemed to be a 

 perfect indiiference on both sides, till Omai, having taken his 

 brother down into the cabin, opened the drawer where he kept 

 his red feathers and gave him three of them. Ootu, who would 

 hardly speak to Omai before, now begged that they might be 

 friends. Omai assented, and ratified the bargain with a present 

 of feathers ; and Ootu, by way of return, sent ashore for a hog. 

 But it was evident to the English that it was not the man, but 

 his property, they were in love with. "Such," says Cook, "was 

 Omai's first reception among his countrymen. Had he not 

 shown to them his treasure of red feathers, I question muck 

 whether they would have bestowed even a cocoanut upon him. 

 I own I never expected it would be otherwise." 



The important news of the arrival of red feathers was con- 

 veyed on shore by Omai's friends, and the ships were surrounded 

 early the next morning by a multitude of canoes crowded with 

 people bringing hogs and fruit to market. At first a quantity 

 of feathers not greater than might be plucked from a tomtit 

 would purchase a hog weighing fifty pounds ; but such was the 

 quantity of this precious article on board that its value fell five 

 hundred per cent, before night. Omai was now visited by his 

 sister ; and, much to the credit of them both, their meeting was 

 marked by expressions of the tenderest affection. Cook foresaw, 

 however, that Omai would soon be despoiled of every thing he 

 had if left among his relatives : so it was determined to esta- 



