chiefs, fuch as wc believed this Teiratu to be, are flrong,
adlive, young men, in the prime and flower of their age.
Thefe are perhaps eletfted, as among the North American
favages ; being men of avowed courage, ftrength, and military
fagacity; from a confcioufnefs that a body of men,
in cafe of war, necefiarily requires a leader to animate
them as a foul, and upon whofe fuperior talents they may
.confidently place all their hopes. The more we confider
the warlike difpofition of the New Zeelanders, and the
numerous fmall parties into which they are divided, this
■ form of government will appear indifpenfible; for it mull
be evident to them that the qualifications of a chief are not
to be inherited, or propagated from father to fon ; and it is
likewife probable, that this free .people may have had opportunities
of making the obvious refleiftion, that hereditary
government has a natural tendency towards defpo-
tifm.
Captain Cook, apprehenfive left the natives fhould find
■ our garden and deftroy it, not knowing for what purpofe
it was intended, .conduaed Teiratu thither, and fhewed
him every plant in it, efpecially the potatoes. He ex-
prefied a great liking to the laft, and feemed to know
them very -well, evidently becaufe a fimilar root, the Virginian
or fweet potatoe, (convolvulus batatas,) is planted m
.fome parts of the Northern Ifland, from whence he came.
The captain parted from him, after obtaining the promife
• that
that he would not deftroy his plantations, but leave every
thing to grow up and propagate, and returned aboard the
Refolution, where the marines fired three vollies, and our
crews gave three heefty cheers in token of affection to.
their king.
The wind frefhened confiderably after noon, and con- Monday 7,
tinued to blow very hard for two days following, fo that
we were obliged to lie at anchor till the 7 th in the morning,
when we weighed and failed out of Ship Cove, in
company with the Adventure, Our flay here had proved fo
beneficial to our crews, that they might now be faid to be
to the full as healthy as when they left England;. and we
had only a Angle fick man, a marine, on board our floop,
who had laboured under a confumption and dropfy ever
fince we had left England,
C H A P .