“ ** In the afternoon we went to O-Parre with captain Cook,
and found our worthy friend Towhah there with Mahine.
Towhah had been dangeroufly ill of a diforder fimilar to the
gout, and his legs were ftill fwelled, and exceflively painful.
He was however come to take leave of us, and promifed to
vifit us the next morning. O-Too likewife met us there, and
fpoke of fending a fupply of bread-fruit, which we valued
Saturday ,4. more'than hogs atprefent. Early the next morning we received
the vifit of a great part of the nobility of the whole
ifland. Among them was Happaï and all his children, except
O-Too. Towhah and his wife likewife came about
eight o’clock, and brought great loads o f prefents of all
forts to us. The good old admiral was fo ill that he could
not fland on his legs ; he was very defirous however to corné
upon deck ; we therefore flung a chair in ropes, and hoifted
him up in it, to his great delight, and to the aftoniihmem
of all his countrymen. We difcourfed on the fubjecT of the
intended expedition againft Eimeo, which he Hill aflitred us •
would take place foon after our departure. Notwithftand-
mg his.illnefs, he was determined to command the fleet in
perfon, faying it was of little confequence if they killed an
old man, who could no longer be ufeful. He was very
chearful under his infirmities, and his way of thinking was ,
nobly difinterefted, and feemed to be animated by true he-
roifm. He took leave of us with a degree of cordiality and
emotion, which touched the heart, and might have reconciled
ciled a mifanthrope to the world. Mahine, who came on $2 *.
board with him, refolved to go with us to Raietea, to vifit
his relations and friends in the Society Iflands, and then to
return to Taheitee, as foon as he fliould meet with an opportunity.
He confidered, that having pofleflions in feveral
of thofe iflands, it was bis intereft to return thither, and to
difpofe of them to the greatefb advantage. He introduced
to captain. Cook feveral natives of Borabora, one of which
was his brother; they defired a paflage to the Society
Iflands, which captain Cook readily granted. With a degree
of exultation, he imparted to us in confidence, that he
had fliaredO-Poorea’s bed the laft night; this he efteemed
as a great honour and mark of eminence, and Ihewed us
feveral pieces of the beft cloth, which flie had prefented to
him. O-Poorea was therefore not too old to relilh fenfual
gratifications even in a warm climate, where the epocha of
maturity feems to happen at a much earlier age than in
colder countries, and where of courfe every ftage of human
life might be fuppofed to have only a proportionate
duration. Q-Too not being arrived on board, we went to
vifit him once more, and to view fome war-canoes which Saturday,4.
lay at Parre. We found only forty-four, all which belonged
to Tktaha, the fmalleft diftridt in the north-weft pe-
ninfula of Taheitee. O-Too ordered fome military evolutions
to be made before us, which were performed with
great dexterity. The chiefs were all drefled in their
habits,