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Thurfday 28.
portance which they had in the eyes of their enemies before
the battle. Such a degree of contempt might prove fatal
to them in the end.
My father, with Dr. Sparfman, a failor and a marine,
went on fliore the next day in the afternoon, with an intent
to go up to the fummit of the mountains. We had
a great number of canoes about us all this time, and in
them there were always fome chiefs of different difiriCts,
who brought on board their hogs, and their mofi valuable
polfeilions, in order to exchange them for red feathers,
on which they placed an extravagant value. Thefe feathers
produced a great revolution in the connections which
the women had formed with our failors ; and happy was
he who had laid in a fufficient Rock of this ufeful and precious
merchandize at the Friendly Iflands ; the women
crouded about him, and he had the choice of the fairefl.
That our red feathers had infufed a general and irrefiRible
longing into the minds of all the people, will appear from
the following circumRance. I have obferved, in the former
part of this narrative, that the women of the families
of chiefs never admitted the yifits of Europeans.; and alfo
that whatever liberties fome unmarried girls, might with
impunity allow themfelves, the married Rate had always
been held facred and unfpotted at Taheitee. But fuch was
the force of the temptation, that a chief actually, offered
his wife to captain Cook, and the lady, by her hpfbsnd’s
order,
order, attempted to captivate him, by an artful difplay of
all her charms, feemingly in fuch a carelefs manner, as
many a woman would be at a lofs to imitate. I was forry,
for the fake of human nature, that this propofal came from
a man, whofe general character was in other refpeCts very
fair, it was Potatow who could defcend to this meannefs,
from the high fpirit of grandeur which he had formerly
ihewn. We expreffed great indignation a t. his conduit,
and rebuked him for his frailty. It was very fortunate
for us, that a confiderable quantity o f this red plumage
had been difpofed of by our failors at the Marquefas, in
exchange for artificial curiofities, before they knew the
high value which it bore at Taheitee. Had all thefe riches
been brought to this ifland, the price of provifions would
in all likelihood have been raifed to fuch an unreafonable
height, that we might have fared even worfe than during
our firfi vifit. A fingie little feather was a valuable pre-
fent, much fuperior to a bead or a nail, and a very fmall
bit of cloth, clofely covered with them, produced fuch ex-
tatic joy in him who- received it, as we might fuppofe in
an European, who fliould unexpectedly find the diamond
of the Great Mogol. Potatow brought on board his mon-
flrous helmet of war of five feet high, and fold it for red
feathers ; fome others followed his example, and targets
without number Were bought by almofi every failor. But
much more furprifing than this, was their offering for fale
thofe
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