Thefe Circumftances having firongly excited our curiofity,
we enquired who they were, and were informed, that Oamo
was the hufband of Oberea, though they had been a long
time feparated by mutual confent; and that the young woman
and the boy were their children. We learnt alfo, that
the boy, whofe name was T eiiridiri, was heir apparent to
the fovereignty of the ifland, and that his filter was intended
for his wife, the marriage being deferred only till he fhould
arrive at a proper age. The fovereign at this time was a
fon of Whap pai , -whofe name was Outou, and who, as before
has been obferved, was a minor. Whappai, Oamo, andToo-
tahah, were brothers: Whappai was the eldeft, and Oamo the
fecond ; fo that, Whappai having no child but Outou, Terri-
diri, the fon of his next brother Oamo, was heir to the fovereignty.
It will, perhaps, feem ftrange that a boy ihould be
fovereign during the life of his father; but, according to the
cuftom of the country, a child fucceeds to a father’s title and
authority as foon as it is born: a regent is then eledted, and
the father of the new fovereign is generally continued in his
authority, under that title, till his child is of a g e ; but, at
this time, the choice had fallen upon Tootahah, the uncle,
in confequence of his having diftinguilhed himfelf in a war,
Oamo alked many queftions concerning England and its inhabitants,
by which he appeared to have great Ihrewdnefs
and underftanding.
C H A P .
R O U N D T H E WOR L D.
C H A P. XV.
A n Account o f the Circumnavigation o f the I f and, and
various Incidents that happened during the E xp edition;
•with a D efcription o f a Burying-place and P la ce o f
W orjhip, called a Morai. „ ;
ON Monday the 36th, about three o’clock in the morn- 1769.
ing, I fet out in the pinnace, accompanied by Mr. •
Banks, to make the circuit of the ifland, with a view to !y:ollda>, z6-
fketch out the coaft and harbours. We took our route to the
eaftward, and about eight in the forenoon we went on Ihore,
in a diflrict called Oahounue, which is governed by Ah 10, a
young Chief, whom we had often feen at the tents, and who
favoured us with his company to breakfaft. Here allb wc
found two other natives of our old acquaintance, T it ubo a lo
and Hoona, who carried us to their houfes, near which we
faw the body of the old woman, at whofe funeral rites Mr.
Banks had aflifted, and which had been removed hither from
the fpot where it was firft depofited, this place having de-
feended from her by inheritance to Hoona, and it being ne-
ceflary on that account that it fhould lie here. We then
proceeded on foot, the boat attending within call, to the
harbour in which Mr. Bougainville lay, called Ohidea,
where the natives fhewed us the ground upon which his
people pitched their tent, and the brook at which they watered,
though no trace of them remained, except the holes
where the poles of the tent had been fixed and a fmall piece
of potfheard, which Mr. .Banks found in looking narrowly
about the fpot. We met, however, with Orettf, a Chief
Vox.. II. - X who