370 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
chiefs consider him as a man who had seen much of 
the world, and who possessed, according to their 
ideas, an amazing mass of information, his memory 
is certainly very lightly esteemed by his countrymen. 
Ashe does not, however, seem to have evinced, either 
on board the vessels in which he sailed, or among 
the company with which he mingled while in Eng¬ 
land, any latent malignity of character, or cruelty 
of disposition, he might perhaps have returned 
with very different sentiments and principles, had 
he fallen into other hands during his visit here. 
The spot where Mai’s house stood is still called 
Beritani, or Britain, by the inhabitants of Huabine. 
A shaddock tree, which the natives say was 
planted by Captain Cook himself while the vessels 
lay at anchor, is still growing on what was once 
part of his garden. The animals, with the excep¬ 
tion of the goats and pigs, have all died; and in 
this instance, the benevolent intentions of the British 
government, in sending out horses, cattle, &c. 
proved abortive. The helmet, and some other parts 
of his armour, with several cutlasses, are still pre¬ 
served, and, when we arrived in Huahine, were dis¬ 
played on the sides of the house standing on the spot 
where Mai’s dwelling was erected by Captain Cook. 
A few of the trinkets, such as a jack-in-a-box, a 
kind of serpent that darts out of a cylindrical case 
when the lid is removed, were preserved with care by 
one of the principal chiefs, who, when we first saw 
them, considered them great curiosities, and exhibit¬ 
ed them, as a mark of his condescension, to parti¬ 
cular favourites. What became of the organ and 
electrical machine, I never knew. Among the 
curiosities preserved by the young chief of Tahaa, 
there was an article that I was very glad to see; 
it was a large quarto English Bible, with numerous 
