THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
133 
men, women, and children, to the number of twenty and i 777 . 
upward. Omai was the firft who acquainted me with his < £ e , br < u i ry , 
being along-lide the fhip, and delired to know if he Ihould 
alk him to come on board. I told him he might; and ac¬ 
cordingly he introduced the Chief into the cabin, faying, 
<( There is Kahoora, kill him !” But, as if he had forgot 
his former threats, or were afraid that I fhould call upon 
him to perform them, he immediately retired. In a fhort 
time, however, he returned ; and feeing the Chief unhurt, 
he expoftulated with me very earneftly, faying, u Why do 
“ you not kill him ? You tell me, if a man kills another in 
“ England, that he is hanged for it. This man has killed 
“ ten, and yet you will not kill him ; though many of his 
u countrymen delire it, and it would be very good.” Omai’s 
arguments, though fpecious enough, having no weight 
with me, I delired him to alk the Chief, why he had killed 
Captain Furneaux’s people ? At this queltion, Kahoora fold¬ 
ed his arms, hung down his head, and looked like one 
caught in a trap : And, I firmly believe, he expected inftant 
death. But no fooner was he allured of his fafety, than he 
became cheerful. He did not, however, feem willing to 
give me an anfwer to the queltion that had been put to 
him, till I had, again and again, repeated my promife that 
he Ihould not be hurt. Then he ventured to tell us, That 
one of his countrymen having brought a Hone hatchet to 
barter, the man, to whom it was offered, took it, and would 
neither return it, nor give any thing for it; on which the 
owner of it fnatched up the bread as an equivalent; and 
then the quarrel began. 
The remainder of Kahoora’s account of this unhappy af¬ 
fair, differed very little from what we had before learnt, 
from the reft of his countrymen. He mentioned the nar¬ 
row 
