CHAPTER XVI. 
.Madison’s island—religious ceremonies, customs, &c. 
Having now nothing to occupy me but the refitment of my 
ship, which went on with expedition, and the loading the New 
Zealander with the oil from the Greenwich, Seringapatam, and 
the Sir Andrew Harmond (which, from the time requisite for 
pumping it off into small casks, rafting it along side, hoisting it 
on board, and stowing it below, was very tedious work, and I gave 
up all expectation of despatching her before I sailed) i now was 
enabled to make little excursions occasionally into different parts 
of the valley, and visit the natives at their houses, which was 
what I had not been enabled to do heretofore, as my various oc¬ 
cupations had kept me much confined to our village. On these 
occasions I always met the most hospitable and friendly reception 
from the natives of both sexes. Cocoa-nuts and whatever else 
they had were offered me, and I rarely returned home without se¬ 
veral little tie ties as a token of their regard. I generally took 
with me seeds of different descriptions, with which 1 was provi¬ 
ded, such as mellons, pumpkins, peas, beans, oranges, limes, &c. 
together with peach stones, wheat and Indian corn, which were 
planted within the enclosures, in the most suitable places for them, 
the natives always assisting in pulling up the weeds and clearing 
the ground for planting them. The nature of the different kinds 
of vegetables and fruit that each kind of grain wouid produce was 
explained to them, and they all promised to take the utmost care 
of them and prevent the hogs from doing them any injury. I di¬ 
rected them not to pull any of the fruit until they had consulted 
Wilson to know if they were ripe. Among all the seeds that were 
sown there was none which gave them so much pleasure as the 
wheat, which they called maie, which is the name they gave the 
bread-fruit; they would not believe, however, at first that it was 
from this grain we made our bread (which they also called maie, 
but sometimes potatoe) until I had ground some of the grain be* 
