in the Pacific Ocem. 



91 



|>ettetrated the middle of it, about the height of a man's heart. I 

 then called on all tlie warriors to try their spears and slings at 

 the same object ; but they all shook their heads, as an acknow- 

 ledgement of the inferiority of their weapons. The Happah was 

 much astonished at the correctness with which we fired, and said 

 he should proceed to hasten his brethren to a reconciliation. I 

 gave him a white handkerchief, which was attached to a spear, 

 and informed him the bearer of that should be respected. 



On my return to the camp, I found a large supply of hogs, 

 cocoa-nuts, bananas, bread-fruit, tarra, and sugar-cane, with se- 

 veral roots of kava, partly the plunder of the Happahs, but 

 chiefly the contributions of the tribe of Tieuhy. 



CHAPTER XIV/ 



Madisoti^s Island. 



^The hogs of this island are generally of a small and inferior 

 breed, but there are many as large and as fine as those of any 

 part of the world. The practice of castrating the boars, at 

 which the natives are very dexterous, greatly improves their size 

 and appearance, as well as their flavour. The pork is remarka- 

 bly sweet and delicate, many of the ^mailer kind of hogs were 

 brought to ys, which we rarely killed, the larger ones were 

 brought in such numbers toward the latter part of our stay, as 

 to enable me to feed my people entirely on fresh provisions. Of 

 these last, six were found fully sufficient to furnish an ample 

 daily supply to four hundred men. 



According to the traditions of the natives, more than twenty 

 generations ago,* a god named Haii visited all the islands of the 

 group, and brought with him hogs and fowls, which he left among 

 them. He first appeared at Hataootooa Bay, which lies on the 

 east side of the island, and there dug for water, which he found. 

 The tree under which he resided, during his stay, is held sacred 

 by the natives, and is called by them Haii. They cannot tell 

 whether he came in a ship or a canoe, nor can they tell how long 

 he remained among them. 



It may be worthy of remark here, that the natives call a 

 white man Othouah, and their gods bear the same appellation, as 

 do their priests after their death. A white man is viewed by 



* It must be observed, that a man is here a grandfather at the age of fifty, and 

 sometimes much less : hence three generations exist within that period, which 

 would make, agreeable to their computation, about three hundred or three hun- 

 dred and thirty years. ^ 



