£er, the aperture at the end was flopped with a piece of cloth, 1769.
which, leaft he fliould give offence, he left untouched; pro- 1 ^aly' ■
hably there was then fomething within, but now the cloth T“e<aa>'l3-
was taken away, and, upon looking into it, it was found
empty. The general refemblance between this repofitory
and the Ark of the Lord among the Jews is remarkable; but
it is ftill more remarkable, that upon enquiring of the boy
what it was called, he Laid, -Ewharre no Eatua, the houfc of the
God1 he could however give no account of iis fighification or
ufe. We had commenced a kind of trade with the natives>
but it went on flowly; for when any thing was offered, not
one of them would take it upon his own judgment, but collected
the opinions pf twenty or thirty people, which could
not be done without great lofs of time. We got, however,
eleven pigs, and determined to try for more the next day.
The next day therefore, we brought out Tome hatchets, Wed»cf. , 9 .
for which we hoped we fhould have had no occafion, upon
an ifland which no European had ever vifited before. Thefe
procured us three very large hogs ; and as we propofed to
fail in the afternoon, King Oree and feveral others came on
board to take their leave. To the King I gave a fmall plate
of pewter, on which was flamped this infcription, “ His Bri-
“ tannic Majefty’s fhip, Endeavour, Lieutenant Cook Com-
“ mander, 16th July 1769, Huaheine.” I gave him alfo
fome medals or counters, refembling the coin o f England,
ftruck in the year 1761, with fome other prefents 5 and he
promifed that with none of thefe, particularly the plate, he
would ever part. I thought it as lading a teftimony of our
having firft difcovered this ifland, as any we could leave behind
; and having difmiffed our vifitors well fatisfied, and in
great good-humour, we fet fail, about half an hour after two
in the afternoon.
K k 2 The