*774- .
A O G U S T■,
Saturday 13.
which they were defirous to obtain; but as we had never
expected a demand for it, it happened that there were only
a few fmall pieces in the fhip, which had been accidentally
purchafed at Tonga-Tabboo. Thofe who were in potTeffion
of this valuable article were far from making proper ufe
of it. Notwithftanding the loathfomenefs of fait meat, the
failor could not be brought to havé a Angle provident
thought for the future, and exchanged his tortoife-fhell for
bows and arrows, inftead of laying up a Rock of yams.
Our fhort excurlions into the country did not produce
fuch great difcoveries in botany, as to confine us to the fhip
a whole day. We therefore haftened afliore every morning,
and endeavoured to colletft materials for new obfer-
vation. On the 13 th, we walked up the flat hill to the
eaftward, in order to vifit our friends who lived with old
Paw-yangom. We arrived at the plantations unfeen by
any of the natives, who now came down in very fmall
numbers to the beach, their curiofity being fatisfied, and
their diftruft confiderably lefiened. We heard one of the
men at work cutting down a tree with his hatchet of ftone,
and obferved him through the bullies a long while. The
tree was not fo thick as a man’s thigh, and yet it was a
very laborious undertaking, with fuch a tool as this
hatchet, to cut it in two. We went up to him, and he immediately
left off working, in order to talk to us. Several
boys, who remembered us, came, calling us by name, and
brought
brought us handfulls of figs and yamboos; and the women A ugust.
likewife ventured to come and look at us. We examined the
hatchet which the man employed, and found it formed exadlly
like thofe which are made ufe of at the Friendly and Society
Illands. The blade was of a black flone, which refembled the
bafaltes employed at thofe places, and he told us it came from
the ifle of Anattom. He Chewed us at the fame time another
kind of hatchet, to which a broken fliell was fattened
inftead of a blade. This fliell, which feemed to be a part of
a mitre-lhell (valuta mitra) , he faid was brought from the
low ifland Imm£r, a few leagues to the northward of the
bayr It appeared that he was clearing a piece of ground,
in order to plant it with yams. He had already cut down
a quantity of bullies, which lay in heaps, and which he
told us he would fet on fire. We proceeded from hence
towards the fea fliore on the other fide, attended by a number
of boys, and feveral young men. We {hot fome birds in
our way thither, and collected feveral new plants in the plantations,
which were . more delightfully fituated than any
we had hitherto feen. We found in them a variety of
odoriferous plants, and fome others, which it feems were
cultivated only for their elegant appearance, as is frequently
praftifed in gardens. We alfo took notice of the
eatappa-tree, of which the nuts have a large delicious kernel,
twice as big as an almond. It had flied its leaves at
prefent; but the nuts of the laft feafon were ftill flicking
Von. II. ' S s on