The good conduct of the natives was of short duration; for, the next day, six or eight of them assaulted some of our people, who were sawing planks. They were fired upon by the sentry, and one was supposed to be wounded, and three others taken. These I kept confined till night, and did not dismiss them without punishment. After this, they behaved with a little more circumspection, and gave us much less trouble. This change of behaviour was certainly occasioned by the man being wounded; for, before, they had only been told of the effect of fire-arms, but now they had felt it. The repeated insolence of the natives, had induced me to order the musquets of the sentries, to be loaded with small shot, and to authorise them to fire on particular occasions. I took it for granted, therefore, that this man had only been wounded with small shot. But Mr King and Mr Anderson, in an excursion into the country, met with him, and found indubitable marks of his having been wounded, but not dangerously, with a musquet ball. I never could find out how this musquet happened to be charged with ball; and there were people enough ready to swear, that its contents were only small shot.
Mr Anderson's account of the excursion just mentioned, will fill up an interval of two days, during which nothing of note happened at the ships: "Mr King and I went, on the 30th, along with Futtafaihe, as visitors to his house, which is at Mooa, very near that of his brother Poulaho. A short time after we arrived, a pretty large hog was killed; which is done by repeated strokes on the head. The hair was then scraped off, very dexterously, with the sharp edge of pieces of split bamboo, taking the entrails out at a large oval hole cut in the belly, by the same simple instrument. Before this, they had prepared an oven, which is a large hole dug in the earth, filled at the bottom with stones, about the size of the fist; over which a fire is made till they are red hot. They took some of these stones, wrapt up in leaves of the bread-fruit tree, and filled the hog's belly, stuffing in a quantity of leaves, to prevent their falling out, and putting a plug of the same kind in the anus. The carcass was then placed on some sticks laid across the stones, in a standing posture, and covered with a great quantity of plantain leaves. After which, they dug up the earth all round; and having thus effectually closed the oven, the operation of baking required no farther interference.
"In the mean time we walked about the country, but met with nothing remarkable, except a fiatooka of one house, standing on an artificial mount, at least thirty feet high. A little on one side of it, was a pretty large open area, and not far off, was a good deal of uncultivated ground, which, on enquiring why it lay waste, our guides seemed to say, belonged to the fiatooka, (which was Poulaho's,) and was not, by any means, to be touched. There was also, at no great distance, a number of etoa trees, on which clung vast numbers of the large ternate bats, making a disagreeable noise. We could not kill any, at this time, for want of musquets; but some that were got at Annamooka, measured near three feet, when the wings were extended. On our return to Futtafaihe's house, he ordered the hog that had been dressed, to be produced, with several baskets of baked yams, and some cocoa-nuts. But we found, that, instead of his entertaining us, we were to entertain him, the property of the feast being entirely transferred to us, as his guests, and we were to dispose of it as we pleased. The same person who cleaned the hog in the morning, now cut it up (but not before we desired him) in a very dextrous manner, with a knife of split bamboo, dividing the several parts, and hitting the joints, with a quickness and skill that surprised us very much. The whole was set down before us, though at least fifty pounds weight, until we took a small piece away, and desired that they would share the rest amongst the people sitting round. But it was not without a great many scruples they did that at last, and then they asked, what particular persons they should give it to. However, they were very well pleased, when they found that it was not contrary to any custom of ours; some carrying off the portion they had received, and others eating it upon the spot. It was with great difficulty that we could prevail upon Futtafaihe himself to eat a small bit."
"After dinner, we went with him, and five or six people, his attendants, toward the place where Poulaho's mourning ceremony was transacted the last time we were at Mooa; but we did not enter the inclosure. Every person who went with us, had the mat tied over his cloth, and some leaves about the neck, as had been done on the former occasion; and when we arrived at a large open boat-house, where a few people were, they threw away their leaves, sat down before it, and gave their cheeks a few gentle strokes with the fist; after which they continued sitting, for about ten minutes, with a very grave appearance, and then dispersed, without having spoken a single word. This explained what Poulaho had mentioned about Tooge; though, from the operation only lasting a few seconds, he had not been observed to perform it. And this seems to be only a continuation of the mourning ceremony, by way of condolence. For, upon enquiring, on whose account it was now performed, we were told, that it was for a chief who had died at Vavaoo some time ago; that they had practised it ever since, and should continue to do so for a considerable time longer."
"In the evening, we had a pig, dressed as the hog, with yams and cocoa-nuts, brought for supper; and Futtafaihe finding that we did not like the scruples they had made before, to accept of any part of the entertainment, asked us immediately to share it, and give it to whom we pleased. When supper was over, abundance of cloth was brought for us to sleep in, but we were a good deal disturbed, by a singular instance of luxury, in which their principal men indulge themselves, that of being beat while they are asleep. Two women sat by Futtafaihe, and performed this operation, which is called tooge tooge, by beating briskly on his body and legs, with both fists, as on a drum, till he fell asleep, and continuing it the whole night, with some short intervals. When once the person is asleep, they abate a little in the strength and quickness of the beating, but resume it, if they observe any appearance of his awaking. In the morning, we found that Futtafaihe's women relieved each other, and went to sleep by turns. In any other country, it would be supposed, that such a practice would put an end to all rest, but here it certainly acts as an opiate, and is a strong proof of what habit may effect. The noise of this, however, was not the only thing that kept us awake; for the people, who passed the night in the house, not only conversed amongst each other frequently, as in the day, but all got up before it was light, and made a hearty meal on fish and yams, which were brought to them by a person, who seemed to know very well the appointed time for this nocturnal refreshment."
"Next morning, July 1, we set out with Futtafaihe, and walked down the east side of the bay to the point. The country, all along this side, is well cultivated, but, in general, not so much inclosed as at Mooa; and amongst many other plantain fields that we passed, there was one at least a mile long, which was in excellent order, every tree growing with great vigour. We found, that, in travelling, Futtafaihe exercised a power, though by no means wantonly, which pointed out the great authority of such principal men; or is, perhaps, only annexed to those of the royal family. For he sent to one place for fish, to another for yams, and so on, at other places, and all his orders were obeyed with the greatest readiness, as if he had been absolute master of the people's property. On coming to the point, the natives mentioned something of one, who, they said, had been fired at by some of our people; and, upon our wishing to see him, they conducted us to a house, where we found a man who had been shot through the shoulder, but not dangerously, as the ball had entered a little above the inner part of the collar-bone, and passed out obliquely backward. We were sure, from the state of the wound, that he was the person who had been fired at by one of the sentinels three days before, though positive orders had been given, that none of them should load their pieces with any thing but small shot. We gave some directions to his friends how to manage the wound, to which no application had been made; and they seemed pleased, when we told them it would get well in a certain time. But, on our going away, they asked us to send the wounded man some yams, and other things for food, and, in such a manner, that we could not help thinking they considered it to be our duty to support him till he should get well."
"In the evening we crossed the bay to our station, in a canoe, which Futtafaihe had exercised his prerogative in procuring, by calling to the first that passed by. He had also got a large hog at this place, and brought a servant from his house with a bundle of cloth, which he wanted us to take with us, as a present from him. But the boat being small, we objected; and he ordered it to be brought over to us the next day."
I had prolonged my stay at this island, on account of the approaching eclipse; but, on the 2d of July, on looking at the micrometer belonging to the board of longitude, I found some of the rack work broken, and the instrument useless till repaired, which there was not time to do before it was intended to be used. Preparing now for our departure, I got on board, this day, all the cattle, poultry, and other animals, except such as were destined to remain. I had designed to leave a turkey-cock and hen, but having now only two of each undisposed of, one of the hens, through the ignorance of one of my people, was strangled, and died upon the spot. I had brought three turkey-hens to these islands. One was killed as above-mentioned, and the other by an useless dog belonging to one of the officers. These two accidents put it out of my power to leave a pair here; and, at the same time, to carry the breed to Otaheite, for which island they were originally intended. I was sorry, afterward, that I did not give the preference to Tongataboo, as the present would have been of more value there than at Otaheite; for the natives of the former island, I am persuaded, would have taken more pains to multiply the breed.
The next day we took up our anchor, and moved the ships behind Pangimodoo, that we might be ready to take the advantage of the first favourable wind, to get through the narrows. The king, who was one of our company this day at dinner, I observed, took particular notice of the plates. This occasioned me to make him an offer of one, either of pewter, or of earthenware. He chose the first; and then began to tell us the several uses to which he intended to apply it. Two of them are so extraordinary, that I cannot omit mentioning them. He said, that, whenever he should have occasion to visit any of the other islands, he would leave this plate behind him at Tongataboo, as a sort of representative, in his absence, that the people might pay it the same obeisance they do to himself in person. He was asked, what had been usually employed for this purpose before he got this plate? and we had the satisfaction of learning from him, that this singular honour had hitherto been conferred on a wooden bowl in which he washed his hands. The other extraordinary use to which he meant to apply it, in the room of his wooden bowl, was to discover a thief. He said, that, when any thing was stolen, and the thief could not be found out, the people were all assembled together before him, when he washed his hands in water in this vessel; after which it was cleaned, and then the whole multitude advanced, one after another, and touched it in the same manner as they touch his foot, when they pay him obeisance. If the guilty person touched it, he died immediately upon the spot, not by violence, but by the hand of Providence; and if any one refused to touch it, his refusal was a clear proof that he was the man.
In the morning of the 5th, the day of the eclipse, the weather was dark and cloudy, with showers of rain, so that we had little hopes of an observation. About nine o'clock, the sun broke out at intervals for about half an hour; after which it was totally obscured, till within a minute or two of the beginning of the eclipse. We were all at our telescopes, viz. Mr Bayly, Mr King, Captain Clerke, Mr Bligh, and myself. I lost the observation, by not having a dark glass at hand, suitable to the clouds that were continually passing over the sun; and Mr Bligh had not got the sun into the field of his telescope; so that the commencement of the eclipse was only observed by the other three gentlemen; and by them, with an uncertainty of several seconds, as follows:--